Snowfights and Yeti's

Sara walked through the streets of Hargeon as the gentle snow fell from the sky and on to the ground or houses, smoke coming from the chimneys of the houses in the town. She wore her casual clothing as it was one of the warmed days of winter, the only addition to said clothing was a pair of gloves that were rolled up in her pockets if it got to cold and the green camo scarf that she wore almost all the time. It was a perfect day as today, some festivities were going to happen in Hargeon, there would be some games and contests that anyone would be able to participate in. The one she was interested the most was the snowball war that they were going to host, as she had never played with snowballs, the only thing before that was that they had to build their own snowman's before the fight in order to participate, all in all it was an interesting event and she couldn't wait to see how far she was going to go in it. 

'Instead of spending your time training and mastering your abilities, you are going to spend the day playing games?' The voice of the demon inside her boomed in her head, and she smiled 'I want to take a bit of a break, and it won't hurt to have some fun without having to fight for your life.' She replied back to him through their link and went through a gate with a sign with the name Winter Solstice. As she went up to the sign up booth, she was crushed as they told her that she needed to find a team mate as she had come alone, luckily they had an area where it was meant to filled with people that were searching for other people to team up with. 

She went into the area and started to search for someone to team up with, there were quite a few people around here, some even forming teams and exiting the area to go the sign up booth again. She wondered how she would find someone to team up with here and decided to walk around in hopes to spot someone that still wasn't in a team or conversing with someone else already to form a team. But before that she spotted a small shop that was selling hot chocolate and went directly into it, not long after she had already exited with a steaming hot cup of it, and sat down on a bench, she had decided that she would search for a teammate after the hot chocolate, there was enough time for both either way.

Word Count: 446

Zhāng had recently received his second mage class upgrade from C to B and both his practice and his research had been keeping him busy as of late. However, the stress from all that had caused his mental defenses to weaken a bit, just enough to cause his alter ego, Stein, to stir from his slumber. Much to Zhāng’s chagrin, this troublesome alter ego of his had been pestering him to take a break and go participate in something which was going to be at least marginally exciting. So, despite not wanting to get out of the house, Zhāng had decided to look about for something which would be intriguing enough to satisfy Stein. After a bit of searching, he came upon a flyer describing what was apparently called the winter Solstice Festival and Stein had seemed fairly taken with it, so he decided to close up shop much earlier than usual and got ready to head out to the port town of Hargeon since that was the location of this Winter Solstice Festival. He had found it too much of a hassle to coordinate clothing like other people would, or even just to pick a different outfit, so in the end he had decided to go with his usual physician-scientist’s white coat, the one which seemed to somehow always be stained with some residue or another, usually having varying hues of red. He didn’t feel the need to wear a shirt beneath the white coat like other “normal” people would since, after all despite his polite demeanor and his privileged upbringing, in the end he was a mad physician-scientist. Around his neck, he had decided to drape his favorite scarf, a rather eye catching , hand knitted, yellow one which his mother had made for him so long ago.

Below, he had decided to go with a pair of his dark colored, special order formfitting trousers and for footwear, he had decided on his usual pair of custom order long boots. Finally, as per usual once again, he decided to go with a pair of his disposal greenish blue surgeon’s gloves in order to prevent anything unforeseen from potentially affecting his hands. After that, he had headed out and taken a transport from his base in Magnolia Town to Hargeon. It took a while to get there due to all the people who had also come out to participate in the very same Winter Solstice festival in Hargeon, but eventually, the transport did manage to make it all the way there. Once there, he got off and made his way to the giant, eye catching sign which declared Hargeon as the festival site and then entered into the quaint little port town. The last time he had been here was for the Halloween festival, and he hadn’t had any occasion to come around since, so this was going to be at least marginally interesting. Sadly, his musings were soon interrupted by Stein’s insufferably loud “voice”

Haha…this is gonna be such a fun time, partner!! I can’t wait to see all that this festival’s got to offer me!!

Stein’s raucous voice boomed thus in Zhāng’s mindscape which Zhāng found quite irksome, and so he tried to silence him

Whatever…just be silent already, you insufferable pest…I did you the favor of coming out here despite not having all of that workload, so spare me the annoyance of having to talk to you…

However, Stein was too out of control, perhaps as a result of having been chained up by the mental shackles which his default persona, Zhāng had placed on him till now via the new Alchemyoudo Drive device which was implanted securely in their thorax. So, Zhāng’s chastising and attempt to silence his irksome alter ego failed, which annoyed greatly once again. Sighing at this failure, he instead refocused his mind and senses to look for whichever of the activities would allow him to expend the least amount of energy. In the end, he decided to go with the snowball war, but sadly, it seemed that he needed to not only do the snowman contest which was a sort of prequel to this, but also to actually find a partner to do it with him.

“What a nuisance…I actually have to work with someone else for this…looks like my terrible luck has struck again…oh well, can’t be helped, I suppose…”

He grumbled under his breath like that for a few seconds, but since he wanted to get the day over with as quickly as he could, he bit the bullet and started to look about for anyone who wasn’t already on a team or else conversing with others to form a team. After a while, he spotted what seemed like a lone young woman at one of the stands which was offering hot chocolate to any patrons who were interesting in tasting some. So, he headed in her direction and after purchasing some minty fresh hot chocolate, he sat down a few paces away from her and then took a sip of the hot chocolate before breaking the ice

“Hello there, miss. I don’t mean to bother you, but might you be looking for a partner for one of these activities? It seems that everyone needs to pair up, so I was hoping to convince you to pair up with me, if that’s okay with you, of course…”

He asked, revealing his voice to be a rich baritone, but rather mellifluous one and then brought what he surmised to be a cordial smile to his thin, firm, darkly discolored lips. After that he fell silent and waited for her reaction and reply, hoping that the giant scar which could seen on his torso and the rather prominent dark circles under his eyes wouldn’t frighten her off. Of course, that wasn’t because he cared about what she would think of him, but only because it would be too much hassle to exert himself to search for another partner if she were to decline his offer.

_____

Post WC: 1002

Personal Total WC: 1002/1500
---
OOC:

italics are alter ego, Stein's thoughtspeak

italics with bold are Zhang's thoughtspeak

bold with quotes are out loud speech

Sara was enjoying her hot chocolate, she rarely drank said liquid and was now savoring it like it was the first time she was drinking it. In the meantime more and more people were already heading back to sign up and she had yet to start a search for a teammate. 'You may want to start looking for someone if you are going to participate instead of waiting for the last moment' The demon said through the link and Sara was quick to respond back 'Relax, we have more time and I can see that there are still quite a few people without a teammate.' The main problem here was that she really wanted to participate in the snowball fight and the other person that was with her had to agree with this, the other parts of the contest didn't interest her as much, but she wanted to throw snowballs at other people or things so much, that she felt like a child again. 

Luckily for her, a man had sat next to her, her lone green eye looking at him as she noticed that he too was holding a cup of hot chocolate in his hands. She took a quick look at him and noticed some special characteristics most prominently the shadows under his eyes, it looked like he spend too much time working or doing something else then resting. Next was the giant scar on the upper part of his chest, as if he had been cut open by something or someone, it didn't bother her at all as she knew very well the dark life behind the curtain of happiness in this world. A lot of things happened in the shadows, some unthinkable, and some that would question if there was a dark being somewhere in the world being entertained by what was happening. But life was not as dark as she made it out to be, it was mostly the life of a mage that was like this, and depending on how deep you dig into these things.

She smiled behind her scarf as he told her that he was going to participate in the event and that he needed a partner and extended said offer to her. "I'm in need of a partner and I don't see why not, lets win whatever contest we are in, personally I wanted to enter the snowball fight, but we will need to participate in the snowman building contest, if that's okay with you." She said and moved one hand away from the cup of chocolate and extended her small arm to him to shake his hand after introducing herself "My name is Sara, Sara Ravencrest. I would love to know your name as well." She said brightly, the beast inside her instantly said something of the sort that she is way to trusting to give her family name out, before knowing anything about the person, but she shrugged it off, and awaited for said person to shake her hand or introduce himself at least if he wasn't to content with shaking hands, as there were people that preferred not to.


In the meantime Sara took another look at him, a bit fair and paleness in terms of skin, strange markings around his neck and discolored lips. If she would have to guess based of the markings, she would guess that he was a mage as well, but she had already sensed that when he sat down next to her, she could have done it earlier, but the chocolate had been too distracting at that moment. Nonetheless today may prove to be a even better day if she got another friend, depending how everything went that is, it was too soon to call him one yet, as she didn't even know his name, in the end time would tell.  

Once everything was in order, she would ask him if he wanted to go sign up for the contests.

Word Count: 659
Total: 1105
@Stein66

He could feel her eyes examining him from head to toe pretty closely, but he couldn’t blame her. After all, he didn’t look anything close to the average person, what with the strangulation like rope marks around his neck, the giant scar that could be seen running diagonally along the anterior aspect of his torso with sutures all the way, the numerous other smaller scars that were scattered across the rest of the visible part of his body, his all too evident serious sleep deprivation, and his darkly discolored lips which indicated some level of oxygen starvation among other things. However, he shook it off since he noticed she had introduced herself once he had made his proposal about the contest entry to her. He also noticed her outstretched hand for a handshake and mirrored the gesture, giving her a brief, but firm handshake. After that, he introduced himself in return, doing her the courtesy of revealing his full name since she had seen fit to do so just moments earlier

“I see, that’s quite the intriguing name you have there, Ms. Ravencrest. My name is Zhāng, Zhāng Faustein. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

He paused there and pondered the sequence of events for a few seconds and then replied in the affirmative

“Yes, that sounds good to me as well. So, first we’ll be doing the snowman building contest…and as I understand it, in the snowball fight we will be participating in immediately after that, the snowmen we build will be used in one way or another. I am pleased to see we think so much alike. It will make coordinating our actions that much easier for the both of us.”

With that, he fell silent and quickly finished off the remaining hot chocolate in his cup after which he threw it in the trash bin next to the bench they were on and then resumed conversing

“Well then, once you’re done with your hot chocolate, we can go sign up together…By the way, if you don’t mind my prying query, which flavor of hot chocolate did you get?”

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Post WC: 352
Personal Total: 1354/1500

Sara smiled as the man that sat next to her returned the courtesy and shook her hand, introducing himself as Zhāng, and mentioned that her name sounded intriguing which was obviously a remark for her family name "It does doesn't it." She said with a small smile her other hand returning to the cup of chocolate and took the last sip of it before throwing away her cup in the bin next to them, as Zhang picked the event apart. "Most likely it will be like that, but I still want to build a great snowman!" She said enthusiastically. "So lets build a snowman and then take everyone down in the snowwar" Sara stretched as she said that and was about to jump down from the bench when she heard him ask what kind of flavour her hot chocolate was. "Oh, it was the basic cacao powder hot chocolate, I didn't want to get anything special." 

"Lets go sign up, we still have some time i think, but better safe then sorry." She said and began to lead the way towards the booth. "So what do you do Zhang, are you mage?" She asked, knowing the last part already, as she could sense that he had more magical power then an average person and even above a low class mage, and most likely guessed that she was a mage as well, it wasn't like she had any way of hiding her magic power, at least it was good that people couldn't sense the demon inside her, at least that was she thought, as Ruvel had never brought it up.

When they got the the booth Sara turned back to Zhang. "Do you want to do the honors and sign us up, or should I do it?" Sara asked and waited for him to reply to her. She didn't mind either of the outcomes. Excitement was flowing through her already as if she was still a child "I can't wait for the snowball war, I hope that its going to be fun" She exclaimed, it was rare for her to get out any entertainment of something without her having to fight for her life, and the past jobs really did prove that, so this was something that she was looking forward too, and if it proved fun she would participate every year in it.


WC: 393
Total:1498
@Stein66

He nodded as she mentioned her choice of hot chocolate, remarking

“I see, interesting choice indeed. I got the mint flavor variety since I have never tried that particular one before.”

He said, making a short bit of small talk and once she was finished with her hot chocolate, he responded in kind with the same degree of enthusiasm she had shown earlier when talking about the snowman she intended to build

“Of course! Ours shall be a true masterpiece, the king of all the snowmen that will be possibly be built today! It will be so good none but the best will be able to stand against it!”

As he talked, his eyes shone with a kind of excitement which he rarely if ever showed these days since as an adult, he had many an occasion where he needed to suppress his emotions. However, all this talk of building snowmen and having snowball fights like a bunch of kids brought back fond memories of his childhood in the world he originally came from where he had been just an ordinary guy, and not a mage.

Thankfully, her voice brought him back from his reverie and he nodded, looking at the booth

“Yes, let’s do that now so that we can move at our own leisurely pace later on. Signing up this early will also give us time to talk about possible design choices.”

He said as he followed her lead to the booth and while walking, he heard her ask whether he was a mage or not and to that, he said nothing, but merely transmuted his left index fingernail into what looked like a big, thick, razor sharp dragon claw slowly right before her eyes and then asked

“Does that answer your query, my dear Ms. Ravencrest?”

He paused there for effect, and then addressed the first part of her query

“As for my profession, you see, I work as a magical physician-scientist, that is…when I am not busy with fulfilling any client requests that come my way from people seeking my help as a general mage.”

Then, he gave her a once over in passing and remarked while having a knowing smirk on his thin, discolored lips and a piercing, curious glint in his blue eyes

“I presume you are one as well, judging from that magic energy you have been giving off all this while…though if you don’t mind my saying and being so forward, it is quite the intriguing signature, quite unlike anything I have experienced before today. Thus, I am glad to have had the good fortune of meeting you here today.”

And that was the end of that conversation, at least for the time being, since they were already in front of the booth for the event sign up. He nodded when she asked who was going to sign them up and did the sign up, making to spell her name correctly, lest he offend her in some way because of it. He uttered a rumbling chuckle when he heard the excitement in her voice as it got him excited as well due to the aforementioned memories of his past life. That also made him reply while having a genuine ear to ear happy smile on his lips while doing a fist pump into the air, another thing which was quite unlike him

“That makes two of us, Ms. Ravencrest! Let’s go out there and win this, but more importantly have fun doing it!”

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OOC:
Post WC: 550
Personal Total WC: 1938/1500

Sara giggled as Zhang went about how they will build the best snowman for this competition, and that no one will be able to stand up to it. "Indeed we will, they will just have to give all of the rewards to us after they see what we have built." She said and continue walking towards the booth, it looked like both of them were quite excited for the contests especially the Snowball war. "We'll have to think of how to build our snowman and how he will look if we want to make it more unique, or we could just build a giant regular snowman with lots of sticks for arms" She said and flayed her arms around in hope to mimic a giant effect. She couldn't wait for the events to start now that she had a partner for them, and he seemed to be on the same side of ideas like her, in a way, so it was even more exciting.

Soon he showed her the magic he used by transforming his hand's nails into the one's of a dragon's claws. It was takeover if she wasn't mistaken, a useful magic nonetheless as it also lets the user take an ability of the thing that the takeover is from, at least that was one of the things she had read in the books her family had. "It does answer it, I guess I should at least show something as well." She said and raised her arm a bit and opened her palm, a small ball of condensed light, or more exactly holy energy, for a second it stayed like that and in the next one it started changing towards a deep red like the color of blood, and finally it disappeared on her command, deciding the leave the part that she could combine them both to make a third purple like orb. "That was my magic, I could make it a bit bigger, but I don't want to get attention on myself currently." After that her partner also decided to tell her what he does in his spare time, which explained the pale skin and shadows around his eyes, he most likely spent more time in a lab then on the outside world when he wasn't outside on a job that is. She was a little surprised when he even told her that, as they barely knew each other thinking that he would either just mention that he was a mage or at most a part of a guild. In the end she decided that it would be only fair if she shared a bit more. "That's quite interesting, exploring the depths of magic I presume?.. As for me, I am a part of the West Fiore Trading Co., as it name sounds, its more of company then a guild, but we get jobs request here and there to finish, alongside guild marks so people could recognize us as members, but its quite cold so I'll refrain from showing it now." She said, hoping that it wouldn't be a problem as the mark was on the middle of her left upper arm and she would need to take of her jacket in order to do so.

As Zhang mentioned her magic signature, Sara got a bit worried, he was either sensing her reserves as they had gotten bigger in the past few days from the training she had been doing, or the part that was worrying her, he could sense the demon inside her. 'I doubt it, the only way for someone to be able to sense me, is someone extremely strong, or a person with a sensory ability of some sort.' The demon said through their link, trying to calm her and she gave him a mental nod to him. "If you don't mind me asking, what's so intriguing about my signature?" She asked, hoping to ease her fears a bit.

She watched as Zhang went and signed them both up for the event, she spelled her name as he had asked and soon both of them were signed up for said event, not for every contests but for supposedly the last two in the list, snowman building and after that a snowball war in which said snowman would participate. She nodded as he mentioned for them to win the contest and have fun doing so.

"Lets go, I think it should start soon." She said and led the way to the area where there was a large sign 'Snowman Contest, do your best to build the best snowman and defeat your opponents with it' it read and she entered, there were designated spots where people would stay in order to give space to the other teams so everything could be fair. "I'm so excited for this." She said and turned around towards Zhang. "We are so going to build the best snowman".


Post WC: 817
Total WC: 2315
@Stein66

Zhāng had watched in wonderment as she showed her magic in return for his little display a little earlier and then they had signed up and now, they were heading off to the site of the snowman building contest. She had asked him about the nature of his work, but since it wasn’t exactly the ethical kind, he replied a little more evasively than before, while nodding to acknowledge her remark that she wouldn’t show her company emblem since it was too old to remove her jacket and since it was beneath it

“Yes, it’s something akin to that…on another note, I just thought of a nice design for our snowman so I can explain it once we get to the contest area. It will be unique, and perhaps our magic can also help some…”

She had asked him afterwards regarding what was so intriguing about her signature, so he pondered the issue for a while, mainly how to phrase his words without alarming her as from what he could understand by observing her facial expressions, she seemed worried, presumably since she thought perhaps he could probe into her magic deeper than she would like, so he set about allaying her fears, but couldn’t help flashing a smug, somewhat mischievous smirk at her while he did

“Oh, I don’t have any kind of special sensory ability of some sort…nor am I extremely strong…also, we met just a little while ago, so I will honor your privacy, you can rest assured of that…when I said your magic signature was interesting, I meant more that it is far larger than any I have seen or felt till today, that’s all.”

Afterwards, he nodded agreeing with her that they would have the best snowman at the end of the day, despite a part of him being concerned that the same snowman maybe used against them in some way in the snowball war later on. However, the snowman building came first, so he didn't let his worries show on his face and instead, refocused his attention on the task at hand and fell silent while waiting for her reactions and response.

-----

Post WC: 348

Personal Total WC: 2298/1500

Sara looked at Zhang with slight excitement in her lone eye. "Then I'll be following your design idea." She said wait a small smile as he mentioned he had an idea for the snowman "Just direct me on what I'll need to do and I'll try my best." It wasn't going to be long until the contest started, and she was happy that he had an idea on how to do the snowman. After that would come the part she was anticipating, and she knew that they will win it as well, if there were no other mages it would be even easier, but she doubted that even if there were some of them, they would still win it.

There was a mental sigh of relief, as her features became relaxed again on the outside, even if she had a partnership going with her tenant, she still feared openly talking about it to people she didn't know as she was still trying to gain complete control over her power, and with the new training regime that was provide by her tenant, she was training like the previous one's that had him inside them train, and soon they were even going to a 'special' place as he called it. 'See, I told you that he isn't sensing me, he didn't feel like that type that has those abilities, at least yet. Being a scientist may be troublesome in the future if he happens to be your enemy.' He said trough their link 'Lets hope that he won't, he seems like a nice guy, a bit strange but nice.' She said and went back to the real world.

"Don't worry it wasn't anything about privacy, it was that no one had told me that and I was wondering what you would say." She said, it was half the truth and half a lie, as she indeed was interested in what he would say about her signature. Maybe someday she would feel more comfortable with the showing everyone and even walking around without the eye-patch that was on her eye now.

It was at this moment that the voice of one of the casters boomed through the area "I'm happy to welcome everyone that has come her either to participate in our Winter Solstice or just watch, its going around all of Fiore, so lets show them our Festive spirit is the strongest." He said and the crowd applauded him. "Now for the events, first will be the snowman building contest, it will be held by following the steps right beside the signup booth.." He said and started to mention the rest of the contests but Sara didn't listen to him, instead she turned around towards her partner "Well lets go then, we can't have them wait for the winners." She said and turned on her heel and moved towards the designated area.

WC: 480
Total: 2795
@Stein66

Zhāng was pleased when he heard her say she was going to follow his directions as that would make things much easier to work with her and when the announcer started to welcome the participants, he had been listening along with her to the directions and once the announcement was over, she had started heading towards the event site, he fell into step with her while remarking as he looked at the rest of the competition

“Of course!! We shall leap into this fray and at the end, claim our rightful place at the top of the heap!!

He said in an excited voice while thrusting a fist outward to emphasize his point, both of which were quite unlike his usual cool headed self. However, since he didn’t want to get too far ahead of himself he fell silent so he could focus on his snowman design.

Hmm, I think the Michelin Man who acts as a mascot for the more popular tire manufacturing companies would work well here…

He was about to continue thinking when suddenly, Stein who had been unusually quiet all this time interjected

This sure looks like fun, doesn’t it partner?! Hehe, I can’t wait to see what you come up with!! Of course, with your measly intellect and uptight attitude, I dunno if you can even begin to keep me entertained!! Still, struggle as much as you can, I guess!!

He grumbled in his mindscape as his brilliant plan was so rudely interrupted by his troublesome alter ego

Tsk, you’re here again, Stein?! What is it this time, you insufferable cretin?! In case you haven’t noticed, I am busy at the moment!! So go back to the darkness from whence you came!!

Stein laughed raucously in their shared mindscape when he heard his default persona’s clearly disgruntled tone, but didn’t bother replying, but instead kept pushing his buttons because it amused him so much, which of course made Zhāng’s right eyebrow twitch visibly while the right corner of mouth dipped downward in a clear half frown, not that he knew he was doing that at present

By the way…that Sara Ravencrest chick is quite sexy, isn’t she, partner? If I were you, I would totes be putting the moves on her right about now!! Who knows, maybe one of these days, I just might take over your body when the right moment presents itself and have some fun with her!!

Zhāng was not the type to get incensed easily by what Stein did or said and usually ignored him or just replied in an irritated or exasperated manner in his mindscape, but that comment was too much even for his patience to ignore, and thus caused him to lose his focused hold on his mindscape, albeit only temporarily

“WHAT IN BLUE BLAZES DID YOU JUST SAY?! IF YOU DARE TO DO WHAT YOU JUST SAID, I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER COMING INTO EXISTENCE!! REMEMBER I DO HAVE THE RIGHT TOOLS NOW TO LOCK YOU UP FOREVER OR EVEN TO ERADICATE YOU OUTRIGHT!! IF I HEAR EVEN ONE COMPLAINT ABOUT YOUR MISCONDUCT, YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!!”

Due to his loss of focus, unbeknownst to him as yet, he had just inadvertently blurted that out in a much louder version of his usual deep, mellifluous voice, making this outburst having the same volume and impact as a point blank lion’s roar. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had also frozen dead in his tracks with his fists clenched tightly and leaning backwards a little with his head thrown back while making this outburst, which made those around him stop and stare at him slack jawed like deer caught in a car’s headlights, not only because of the outburst but also since he now had an extremely enraged look on his face which made his features so contorted that, to them, he almost seemed like a demon.

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Post WC: 653

Personal Total WC: 2942/1500

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OOC:
Italics: Stein’s thought speak

Italics w/ Bold: Zhāng’s thought speak

Bold in quotes: Zhāng’s speech out loud

Sara led the way towards the snowman building area, and looked back for a second to see that Zhang was thinking about something and decided not to pry into him for it, even if it was potentially for the design of their snowman, he would most likely tell her eventually as they would need to work together if they wanted to finish it faster. She was completely confident that they would get it perfectly without any problem, and after that her most anticipated part was coming and she couldn't wait. "Do you think that their places, like first, second and so on in the snowman contest, as they mentioned that everyone that wanted to participate in the snowball war, that they would need a snowman." She said out loud as she thought about it more. There may be placements involved, but most likely everyone that has build a normal snowman would continue towards the next contest. Zhang also looked excited a second ago before had gone deep into thought.

Sara was starting to worry about him a bit, sometime had passed since he went silent for more then she expected. As she was looking forward she got startled a little and instantly turned back as Zhang yelled at the top of his lungs, his back arched and head looking at the sky. He yelled as if someone was talking directly at him, and Sara would have thought that he was just crazy, if they weren't in a world filled with magic, and on top of that she had an entity sealed inside her that she would talk to. She moved closer to Zhang and spoke up "Are you alright?" Her voice filled with worry. 'Do you think he is like me' She asked the demon inside her. 'There is a possibility, it may not be something like me, but there are infinite possibilities that something can mimic your case, either that or he's just crazy.' He said and Sara waited for Zhang to answer her. She wasn't going to ask him any questions for it, she just wanted to know if he was alright.


WC: 354
Total 3149
@Stein66

Zhāng had no awareness of what was going on around him since the wrathful vice of his alter ego currently had him under its thrall due to the mental defense barrier suffering downtime at present time. So, he didn’t answer Sara immediately when she inquired about his status. Several moments passed after that as the people around the both of them stared at Zhāng nervously and started to back away slowly. Eventually, with a supreme effort of will, he was able to regain his composure and snap out of that wrathful state he had been in till then.

“Finally…I managed…to stave off that momentary fit of madness somehow…how irksome…to think I am still affected to such a degree…oh well…”

He mused aloud, and breathed a sigh of relief before returning slowly to his usual relaxed posture, and then turned away from Sara briefly. Then, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and while murmuring under his breath, he quickly performing the special handsigns he had read about in the scroll he had found in the ancient tomb which he had explored recently

“Mi...I…Hitsuji…U…Inu…Ne…Tori…Uma…Mi.”

After that short sequence, he clapped his hands together while murmuring the name of the ability
to activate the temporary form of the mental barrier provided by the Alchemyoudo Drive he had implanted in his chest several days earlier

“Sealing Art: Shinigami’s Shackles.”

Though this was only a stopgap measure, he was sure it would see him through since it sealed his alter ego away for the time being before he could resist its effects or protest about it to him. Then, he turned on his heel and faced Sara again, apologizing in his usual baritone but melodious voice with a low bow to her and then flashed her a cordial smile like before

“Oh, my sincerest apologies if I worried you to any degree, Ms. Ravencrest. Thank you for being concerned about me, but I am quite okay now and ready to proceed with our plan for this event. Now then, let’s get moving to the site, shall we?”

With that, he briefly turned to the others around him and allayed their fears by apologizing to them as well after which he started walking to his chosen spot slowly so Sara could stay in step with him.

--------------

Post WC: 383

Personal Total WC: 3325/1500

Sara waited patiently for her partner to respond to her, a slightly worried face plastered on top of her features. She was about to move her hand a touch him as he had yet to change his posture, and also noticed that the people around them were slowly backing away. Before she could place her hand on him, he moved and spoke aloud and turned around. As he turned around Sara was quite conflicted on something, as she couldn't hear the words he was speaking. 'Do you think he is just crazy or that he has some kind of entity in him, if he does they aren't on the best of terms like us.' She mused through her link, and the deep grumbling voice answered back to her. 'I for certain can't give you an answer about that, but I would suggest not asking about it now, he may not want to talk about it. Something like you, since you are too afraid of the people's reaction.'

Back in reality Sara waited for him to finish whatever he was doing, it didn't take long before he turned back after saying something again, but Sara wasn't able to hear him. When he turned back to her, he apologized for the strange outburst. A sigh of relief escaped from Sara as he mentioned that he was okay. "I'm glad you are, I was worried for a second there. And you can call me just Sara, I was never one for honorifics." She said and followed him to the contest starting point as they got ready.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm happy to present to you the snowman building contest! You can use the designated area around you, in order to be fair and fun towards all!... Get ready, set, go and may the best snowman win!" The announcer's voice boomed through the loudspeakers in the area. Sara swiftly got her hands in her gloves and began gathering snow in huge piles so they could easily make it, in to whatever the design was that Zhang had thought up. With his guiding she began to make the base for their snowman. Around 20 minutes had passed and they were already half way there and their snowman slowly but surely started to look like the mascot from one of the car companies, with Zhang guiding her on what to do, Sara guessed that it wouldn't take much longer for them to get it done.

 

WC: 409
Total:3558
@Stein66

Once Zhāng had apologized to Sara, she had informed him that he could just address her by her first name henceforth, which surprised him since they had after all just met that day, but nonetheless he had acquiesced to her request

“Alright then. Sara it is from now on. In exchange, you can call me Zhāng from now on too, Sara. I look forward to working with you henceforth.”

It was then that the announcer had declared the opening rounds of the snowman building contest and welcomed everyone participating to the day’s festivities. So, Zhāng and Sara had set off for their chosen spot with him in the lead. After a short walk, they had gotten there and without further ado, started building their snowman once they had gathered enough snow piles for it. After about 20 minutes, he stopped to take a breather while stepping back several paces so he could see their overall handiwork.

“Good job so far, Sara. Let’s keep this same pace up for as long as we can.”

He mentioned after returning and then got right back into the fray, working together with her on their snowman. By now it had indeed started to look like what he had pictured in his head, the Michelin Man who was the mascot for a certain famous tire company from his home world. The presence of actual arms and feet instead of the usual thick twigs was the unique feature of this variant of snowman, and he was sure that would give them the edge over the others in the contest. A few more hours passed in relative silence barring the occasional instructional remarks between him and Sara, and as the sun began to dip towards the horizon, and the contest began to draw to a close, their unique snowman was finally finished, standing about five feet tall in all its snowy glory, bathed by the light of the slowly sinking sun. Since it was the mascot of a tire company, everything about it, from head to toe was made of tire like compacted snow based constructs.

“And for the finishing touches, I present our creation with…a big, thick carrot for a nose…a pair of small “8” balls for eyes…a mouth made of semi curved twigs…and finally, a cap…and a scarf!”

He said while putting all the things he mentioned into the snowman at the relevant places. After that, he reinforced the whole snowman’s structure by pouring some of his ice elemental magic energy into it so that it wouldn’t crumble that quickly. Then, he stepped away from their snowman and waited for Sara to come stand next to him so that the judges could examine their snowman along with the rest and give them the verdict on their performance.

-----

Post WC: 463

Personal Total WC: 3788/1500

Sara was glad that Zhang would start using her first name, instead of her family one. She never liked honorifics that much and would try to drop them at the first moment she got, this doesn't mean that she wouldn't use them as she knew how important they would be in certain situation, as well as in the WFTC as she intended to have there a certain level of professionalism when working. But now she was here to have some fun and drop everything that is happening for a few hours. She didn't expect to have that much fun building a snowman and when Zhang mentioned the keep the same pace as the initial one, she nodded with a smile and continue to help him build up the design. To Sara it felt like minutes had passed while in reality a few hours had passed with them building their snowman and sun was setting behind the horizon. The most important part was that their snowman was done, even the snowman was taller then her but not by much, a few inches maybe. "Finally done, it looks perfect!" She said as Zhang put the finished parts on the snowman.

Soon she went to the side to stand with him and their snowman and waited for the judges. "I want to see their jaws drop to the ground when they see what we have made." She said with a smile, and waited patiently for them to come. It didn't take long and when the judges came to their snowman they were quite surprised too see their creation, not as surprised  as she wanted.They wrote their names on a list and proceeded to move forward. "We have most definitely won this one, what do you think?" She asked and turned towards Zhang.

Shorty after the judges went back to the podium where a microphone was. "You have all made amazing snowman and it was quite hard to pick one, until we came across a specific snowman. Congratulations to Ms. Ravencrest and Mr. Faustein, for building that amazing snowman!" He said and the crowd applauded, to which Sara got a bit nervous as it was the first time something like this was happening to her. "Now we will put up the lights for the next contest as it got pretty dark, you can go to the sign up booth and pick up your snowball gun if you wish to participate!"

"Lets go, we can't miss this one." She said and started leading the way towards the booth. When they got there she picked up two snowball guns, which looked like modified paintball guns to her, and she handed one of them to Zhang. "We should get to the starting point, they said that it would start soon as it was already getting quite dark." She said and led the way towards the starting point of the snowwar. "Its going to be teams on teams and the snowman's are going to roam around and try to get you out of the game, they also said we would get three heat grenades per person so we could deal with the snowmen." She said as they neared the starting point of the event.

As they got to the starting point, there were people going around giving heat grenades to people and soon they gave both of them three each. While this was happening Sara looked around the giant playing field where there were building made of snow, trenches and other things to be used to the advantage of the players, and among those buildings she could see the snowman already roaming around. "I can see that they have already unleashed the snowmen on the field, do you have a plan in mind." She said and looked at the clock that was above their heads, as it signaled a minute and a half before starting time.

WC: 648
Total: 4206
@Stein66

Zhāng and Sara had been waiting for the judging part of the snowman contest to start and in short order, it did and then was when he had noticed Sara asking him his opinion of whether they would win the top spot. Upon hearing that, he had let out his deep, rumbling chuckle before nodding and replying with a somewhat prideful smirk on his thin lips

“Of course! WE made it after all, there is no way it can lose out to the rest of those plebs!!”

With that he had let out another deep, rumbling chuckle and then fell silent as he waited for the inevitable victory of his team with Sara over the rest. A few more moments had passed as the judges finished their rounds and finally the victors were announced to the eagerly waiting participants and spectators. Sure enough, just as he had predicted, his team won the top spot which made him flash a wide, smug smirk at Sara while remarking

“See, Sara? What did I tell you? We won this thing hands down!”

And that was the end of that contest and soon the announcer had announced the start of the next part of the event, and that was the much anticipated snowball war, which he knew Sara had been looking forward to even more than she did the snowman construction phase. Then, she had started leading the way while explaining, so he had fallen into step, listening silently while also keeping an eye on their surroundings which had now started getting pretty dark since the sun was mostly gone from the sky. When they arrived, he had taken the modified mini snowball shooting paintball gun that she had given him and then listened to her explain how this phase of the event was going to go down.

“I see, so basically it’s a mock combat scenario with us as the defenders and the snowmen as the attackers. I am impressed at the level of preparation the event committee has put into this more and more. So, let’s make this 2/3 wins now, shall we, Sara?”

Then, he cast his gaze about, letting his keen senses gather as much input data as they could manage with the current conditions. He noticed several snow made buildings as well as trenches and other sorts of defensive structures, all made entirely from snow of course. As he observed, he started to formulate his plan and when Sara asked him if he had a plan in mind, he nodded while checking his paintball gun and mini snowball ammo to make sure he had everything, and lastly, he examined the heat grenades they both had picked up from the event organizers.

“Let’s see, those snowmen outnumber us by quite a lot, so they will probably try to swarm us in an attempt to overwhelm us with their sheer numbers. I don’t know what level of magic was used to program them when they were animated, but if it’s a high enough level, we will have to be careful since they could have some limited intellect, despite being golem type constructs.”

He paused for effect while thinking some more and looking back over the structures for his plan to work properly. There was a particularly tall, flat topped snow fort with a clear view of the surroundings, so he drew Sara’s attention to that one while continuing his explanation

“Anyhow, see that structure over there to my right? That looks somewhat like what we could use as a sniper’s post, so perhaps one of us should lie in wait, hiding out of sight there…the other one will act as bait to lure the snowmen to the spot a few paces away…then perhaps, we could use spreading fire to corral the snowmen horde towards the pit we will dig there…”

He paused to check whether Sara was following along with his explanation or if she needed clarification, but it was a simple enough strategy, and it looked like she didn’t have any questions, so he continued

“…then, the one acting as bait on the ground will destroy the covering for the pit trap to let the snowmen fall in and after that, we can use the heat grenades on them. We only have six, but in that sort of small confined space, their effectiveness will be amplified just enough to do some decent damage. Still, there are only six, so we shouldn’t throw in all of them simultaneously, but rather…keep four in reserve, and use only two for now, just in case we run into any unforeseen difficulties. I have a barrier spell that I can use as a lid to keep the blast force from dissipating so that even if it’s just two grenades, it should be enough to cover entire group.”

He explained in a subdued tone while leaning close to her ear, just in case any other teams happened to be nearby to prevent the chance of his plan being overheard by them.

-----

Post WC: 836

Personal Total WC: 4624/1500

Sara listened carefully as Zhang began is explanation for the event from what she got, she agreed on the things he was saying by nodding and carefully listened to everything he said about the mock combat. "From what I got yes, but I overheard that they will be making a secondary announcement before the start of the game, so lets hope that everything will go smoothly." She mentioned and watched as Zhang looked at both the things that were given at them, the snowball gun and the heat grenades. "We can win this one easily, we shouldn't have any issues here as well. And from the snowman building it looks like we listen to each other so lets do this." She finished.

Zhang had continue to explain his strategy and explained that the snowman were most likely going to try and overwhelm them with numbers. "Most likely, they wouldn't be that hard to outsmart in small numbers." She said as Zhang showed her a rather taller structure then the rest and mentioned that one of them use it as a sniper post. "That sounds like a perfect idea." She said and continued to listen to him and nod at his plan. "The grenades are going to be the tricky part, if there are too many snowmen, and the problem will be if we need to hit them directly, guess we will have to find out the hard the way." She said and looked at the timer on top, it was about 30 seconds before hitting zero.

As the timer hit zero, the announcer's voice was heard again. "Welcome everyone to the snowball war, each team was outfitted with gear for the contest and should be ready for the battle ahead!.. Now some rules that were hidden from you until now, the battle will be teams vs teams, each team will have a quadrant that will be high lighted for you not to cross, you will see the color of your arena next to the timer." He said and Sara looked to see that their color was red. The announcer continue "Now the contest will be in a defend the castle type, one team will defend and the other will attack and have to reach the small room at the end of the defending team.. Once you reach the area you win, each enemy takes 2 hits to take down and one in the head.. Your team's nature will be highlighted in a sword or shield. A sword if you are attacking and a shield if you will be defending, you have one minute before the war starts, and may the best team win!" The announcer finished and put the microphone down.

Sara watched the arena that was now marked with different colors more importantly the red hue'd part which indicated their quadrant. "It seems that our enemy is located in a small military like compound, we have to reach the end of it I guess." She said as she examined the area, and noticed that the snow fort that could be used as a sniper's nest was still in their area. "Also the sniper nest is in our area, so we could use it. I can go for it since I'm pretty fast and hard to spot, so I'll be there in an instant." She said and looked at the timer, and waited for Zhang to put in his own thoughts. 


WC: 572
Total: 4778

Things had been going well thus far, but sadly for Zhāng, his bad luck streak had struck again in the form of the announcer putting the kibosh on his prediction. This had made him let out a soft sigh and grumble a bit

“What a drag…I am so much better at defending than attacking…and it takes way less effort to defend too…oh well, cant be helped, I guess. We just gotta play the best hand we can with the cards we’ve been dealt.”

He had stopped at that, taken a deep breath to compose himself again, and then listened to Sara as she explained her plan while observing the color highlights placed on their area by the event organizers among other crucial details. Luckily for them, it seemed their plan could still work, albeit in a modified form.

“Hmm, so basically you will not only be providing cover fire for me, but also taking out any snowmen which come to harass us while I am away taking the enemy base over, eh? That should suffice for this level of competition, so no objections from me, Sara.”

With that, he fell silent, checked his gear to make sure it was loaded and then headed off into the field, leaving Sara to get to the sniper post as she had mentioned earlier. It didn’t take him very long to come across some snowmen which were apparently waiting to ambush him. They had fairly simple attack patterns, so he could read them easily, such as when they threw ice crystal throwing based throwing stars at him, he was able to either intercept them in midair by shooting them down with his mini snowball shooting paintball gun or else just duck behind some of the several pine trees that were lining the path on either side.

Pathetic…this is all they have for me? I was worried when I heard we were going up against an actual player based team, but if this is all, I can finish this in record time.

He thought as he waited for the snowmen attack to die down before ducking back out leading the snowmen into a small igloo like structure off to the side and trapping them there. Once that was over, he lobbed one of the three heat grenades he had on him into the igloo to destroy the snowmen instantly. After that, he continued on his way and eventually made it to the enemy base at which point, he was fired upon by the sentries, but luckily there was a igloo fort nearby he could duck into for cover before their snowball ammo had a chance to hit him. Then, a pursuit squad made of two snowmen and one of the main squad enemy players came out to track him down, from what he could glean by observing them. So, he decided to trick them into following him into the igloo he had been hiding in earlier and then trapped them there before lobbing his second heat grenade at them. Once the heat grenade had taken out the snowmen, he somehow managed to get a head shot on his pursuer, knocking him out of the competition.

Now this is more like what I expect, but still this is child’s play for me. Come on, you guys…at least come up with something better to keep me entertained here…

Now there were just two left of the six players on the opposing team if memory served from his checkup on the enemy team when they were first introduced at the start of this contest. These two seemed to be a bit more intelligent and cautious than the hotheaded one who had rushed out just now to pursue him, so this made Zhāng lick his lips in anticipation of a potentially challenging battle of wits and strategy that lay before him.

Hmm, how to do this? Ah yes, I know…I can use the “lure the turtle out and chop it’s head off” maneuver here…well just as long as none of those two can predict this kind of simple strategy, of course…

With that in mind, he let out a extremely loud, shrill encoded whistle to call the snowman he had built with Sara to his side while disguising it with his ventriloquism technique to confuse the two waiting in their stronghold. It didn’t take long for the snowman to come to his hiding spot and when it did, its auto attack programming caused it to go and start harassing the enemy side with its ice crystal throwing stars and snow boulder attacks at which point the two came out to destroy the snowman. So, Zhāng hid out of sight on the roof of a taller snow building nearby, waiting for his chance. Soon enough, the enemy players lobbed all of their heat grenades at the snowman he had sent at them and it instantly melted into a puddle, but in the process, they had let their guards down and so, Zhāng was able to finish them off after some finagling with a couple of body shots on one and a head shot to the other, knocking them out of the running like he did to their comrade earlier. After that, he quickly marched into their stronghold and claimed it, signaling the victory siren that ended their contest. Hopefully, since it was loud enough to be heard around the area, Sara who was the defender for their team managed to hear it too. He rubbed his hands to prevent the cold from numbing them as he stashed his gun away and walked out of the claimed enemy stronghold and before making his way back to his own base, he stood before the knocked out enemy players to deliver his parting shot

“Sorry about handing you three this loss, but this is checkmate, my friends. You were just unfortunate this time since your opponent was someone of my high caliber. Better luck next time.”

After that, he started to make his way back to his side where hopefully, his and Sara’s base had not been taken over while he was away attacking the enemy.

-----

Post WC: 1024

Personal Total WC: 5648/1500

Sara nodded as Zhang pieced together their new plan for the contest. "I'll make sure no one reaches our base, player or snowman." She said with confidence as she got ready and gripped the rifle that was in her hands. As the timer hit zero they both parted ways each going towards their respective roles. Sara quickly moved through the snow trenches that were made and with her height she didn't even need to duck and ran fast enough due to her training and magic capabilities that untrained eyes wouldn't be able to catch her as she made her way towards the Snow Fort. As she got close to it, she noticed that there were two snowmen guarding the entrance, walking mindlessly around it. The petite mage reached into her pocket and pulled out two heat grenades as the snowmen were too far away from each other to be cleared out by just one and she didn't want to waste anytime getting up there. 

Before the mindless creations of snow could even react to her the grenades were already thrown out to them both being hit directly and started to melt away. Sara didn't slow down for a second as she had now entered the snow fort and did her best to navigate and reach the stairs. The only thing she hoped was that the stairs didn't cave in on her as she walked upwards, to her luck it they didn't and she had reached the top. Looking around she spotted that Zhang had just dealt with some snowmen and proceeded to run towards the enemy base. She smiled and laid down on the cold ice floor of the top, the cold didn't bother her that much and she began surveying the landscape that was their part of the arena and most importantly looked out for their base.

The opposing team had no idea how many of them there were and would even less suspect that if there is only two of them that no one would be directly in the base. Sara carefully surveyed the surrounding area and finally was able to spot her targets, excitement filled her as she waited for the right moment to strike. Her enemies were a group of 3 players going directly towards their base. As she examined them she noted that they were rather cautious with their approach towards them, examining the area before making a move and walked in a sort of a formation. 'It looks like they suspect an ambush.' She said mentally and aimed directly at the head of the one that was at the back of their pack. With a single pull of the trigger the snowball that came out of her gun quickly made a direct hit on his head marking him as eliminated, after that Sara rolled to the side where there was a sort of pilled up snow to hide herself from them in case they suspect where the shot was coming from, her head only slightly showing in order for her to continue tracking them. "One down, two to go." She murmured to herself and pulled up her gun as the remaining two took cover and were looking for her.

As they got up to move again they broke out in a sprint. Sara was quick to aim and started shooting again successfully hitting one in the chest after shooting around 7 shots at them, but that wasn't enough to knock him out, as she needed to land either two hits somewhere on the body or one in the head. Her cover was quickly exposed as she had to lay completely on the ground as the one on the front had figured out from where she was shooting and attempted to take her out. As the barrage of snowballs died down she looked up only to see that one of her opponents was running full speed towards their base one the other suppressed her with covering fire not even attempting to hit her. Using this as an opportunity Sara quickly got up and shot 3 snowball at him with two of them hitting him in the chest and arm.

Looking for the last member she saw that he was nearing their base, gritting her teeth Sara attempted to to hit him but he was too far for  her snowballs to be as accurate as before. Quickly she fully got up and looked at the distance she had to cover in order to save their base. 'I'm going to have to use magic it seems.' She said and went to the other edge of the snow fort away from their base, when she got to the edge she turned back and ran as fast as she could before jumping, while descending two golden angelic wings formed on her back and and with a single flap she changed her directional and she flew fast towards him. Before her enemy could even grasp what happened he was shot on the back of his head with a snowball eliminating him, when he turned around he could see Sara standing behind him on top of a snow wall with a smile, and slight traces of yellowing light around her. She had made sure to disperse them in order to lower the chances of them being called cheaters. The smile wasn't for him being eliminated, it was because she had heard the siren from the enemy base indicating that Zhang had won the contest for them, she could have restrained herself from shooting the other player, but it was way to much fun for her to stop.

The petite mage turned around and started walking towards the enemy base to find Zhang, and was quite surprised to see him walking back towards their base already. As she got closer she raised her right hand to high five him, as her other one was still holding the gun. "See, I made sure that no one would reach our base, and from the looks of thing you didn't have that much of a hard time as well in their base, we're just the best around and no one can stop us." She said with a small laugh. "Lets go back and get our victory fully confirmed, and get some more hot chocolate." She said and went by Zhang side and waited for him to start moving.


WC: 1063
Total:5841
@Stein66

By the time he had returned to their base, Sara had already taken out the other team’s remaining members who had been trying to invade their base and so he went up to her with a smirk on his face while looking about at the carnage. She had her hand raised to high five so he returned the gesture by giving her a high five as well after which he congratulated her on her stellar performance

“Indeed, they were no match for us, after all. I am very pleased to see you are so competent at team play, Sara. Here’s a head pat as a reward for doing such a splendid job at defending our base from our enemies.”

With that said, since he was feeling a bit mischievous, and since a part of him wanted to see how she would react and lastly, because she was so petite, he went ahead and patted her on the head gently like an adult would do to a kid for a job well done. After that, however, he refocused his attention on her words, nodding his head to show his approval of her idea to go get their victory confirmed and some more hot chocolate as well

“That sounds like a heavenly delight after being out here in this cold weather, so off we go then!!”

He said and then without warning, he scooped her up into his arms in one, fluid, blindingly motion and after crouching forward a little, he pushed off running at his top speed just because he wanted to show off a little, perhaps due to some vestige of his alter ego Stein’s influence which was still in his conscious mind. As a result, as they traveled back, the scenery was but a mere blur. Within the next few minutes, they were now back at the event organizer’s place and so, he set her down again to wait while he went and reported in on behalf of both of them. The event organizers cross checked everything and finally announced their victory over their opponents formally

“Congratulations to both of you! You finished this event in record time, so that’s a job well done, Mr. Faustein and Ms. Ravencrest! Here are your rewards for this event!”

They said while handing out the tokens that he and Sara had won for their participation in the snowman building contest from earlier as well as the snowball war after that. After taking them and placing them in his pocket, he headed back to where Sara was and displayed their earnings to her with a smirk on his face, waiting for her reaction if any.

------

Post WC: 885

Personal Total WC: 6533/1500

Sara smiled as Zhang congratulated her. "You did quite well yourself, they were a big team and you were on the offensive, I was just using the element of surprise." She said and at the same moment received a head pat which quite surprised her, she moved her head and looked at Zhang "This is weird." She said. As Zhang mentioned that the hot chocolate would be great, without warning her, he picked her up, Sara slightly blushing in the process, but she covered her face with her scarf and as they moved Sara's lone eye looked at Zhang with slight annoyance as they landed. She wasn't used to things like this and never had it happened before to her. Nevertheless her look softened after a while as she just assumed it as a friendly gesture, to the normal people they wouldn't be more than a blur, but Sara was able to make out more and more of the things that they passed by from all the time she was training and that she was used to even higher speeds then this. 

As they reached the event organizers place Zhang had finally put her down and went ahead to get them checked out on the victory over the opposing team. Sara took this moment to think a bit, as her blush had died down after landing. 'Whats bothering you kid.' The demon in asked and she went into her mindscape. It was one of the few places that she could take a breather and think. 'I'm just thinking, he does quite the few weird things.' She said and could hear the beast in her mind laugh a bit. 'His a scientist, don't forget it, they tend to do weird things from my experiences with them and he might just be testing you for a reaction or something.' He said and Sara snapped out of her mindscape and watched as Zhang was now returning. As he returned she smiled as he showed her their rewards. "So we got everything then, now we can get that hot chocolate." She said and turned on her heel and started leading the way. "By the way, the way you picked me up, don't do it so suddenly, as sometimes a reach in a rather rough way to sudden surprises." She said with a smirk.

Just as she was about to continue towards the Hot Chocolate shop, she heard a child scream and and quickly shifted towards running in that direction. When she passed the corner their was a child that was being cornered by two rather strange scorpions easily bigger then most and with their tails covered in some shiny ice that looked like it could pierce skin without any problem. As the two scorpions were about to sting the child Sara had intervened and used her magic. Two light spears had formed above her and were slammed down piercing the icy scorpions effectively stopping any future movements from those two things. "Get to safety." Sara said sternly to the child in order for it to quickly follow her order. "What are these things." She said as she looked for Zhang. While doing so, she could see ice and snow flying everywhere around the event. It was getting dangerous for the people and they needed to act fast.

WC: 553
Total: 6394
@Stein66

Zhāng had been wondering what sort of reaction he might elicit from Sara, and for the most part she reacted just as he had thought she would, with surprise and a chastising retort which apparently also doubled as a sort of warning for him not to play with fire in the future. While he found it mostly amusing, on the other hand, he didn’t to sour his cordial relationship with Sara, so even though it was a drag to do so, he had apologized

“Indeed, we did, Sara. It was all thanks to you protecting our base while I was away. I am in awe of your heroic prowess! Please accept my sincere apologies for the trouble I have caused you by my sudden actions. I will be more mindful to avoid such things in the future.”

With that, he bowed low to her with hands clasped before him and a genuinely contrite facial expression to emphasize his currently contrite mindset. After that, he arose and followed alongside her to the hot chocolate shop only to have the treat he was looking forward to get interrupted by some very rude scorpions, specifically ones made of what looked like a form of snow and ice make magic which was unfamiliar to him. Sara had already rushed in to help the little kid the scorpions were ganging up on, so he stepped in to help as well while keenly observing everything with all five of his senses, but yet keeping an extremely relaxed expression on his face to all appearances.

“Hmm, snow/ice scorpions by the looks of them, I would say. However, whatever ice or snow magic it is that gives them life is unfamiliar to me. My, how delightfully intriguing, I should capture some and take them home to my lab for experimentation. For now, please allow me to assist you to make amends for my faux pas earlier.”

His relaxed looking face had suddenly lit up as he was remarking on the nature of the scorpions and how he would love to take some back to his lab to use as guinea pigs, and now his eyes had momentarily turned to those of his alter ego, Stein, that is to say, black sclerae with amber yellow colored irides and slit pupils, but since everyone was busy with the scorpions, he wasn’t sure if she saw that or not. Regardless, he refocused his attention on solving the problem at hand, aka taking the two scorpions down and preventing them from hurting the child that was now running away from the scene.

“Perhaps if you possess some kind of fire magic, now would be a good time to use it, Sara. If my theory about them is correct, it should be super effective against them.”

Then, he fell silent and waited to see if she would follow through with his suggestion or if she had some strategy of her own in mind to use against the scorpions.

----

Post WC: 496

Personal Total WC: 7029/1500

Sara felt bad when Zhang apologized, she didn't want to make it seem like she had an issue with it, as it was in a way to minimize future occasions. "Apology accepted." She said with a smile. He was giving her way to much credit on the other part, it wasn't like she did anything spectacular, especially as the opposing team didn't have a mage, or at least the team that she took out didn't have, she was even surprised that they hadn't been taken out from snowmen in the process of going towards their base.

She noticed that Zhang was examining one of the icy scorpions that she had taken out earlier, the child was now away and she hoped that it would get to a safe place out of reach from the chaos that had started in the event grounds. "I'll try to keep one for you if possible, but we have to act quickly before this spreads out of the contest grounds, in order to minimize the damage." She said and looked towards Hargeon. "If they go in, its gonna be hard to protect the people and fight between the buildings." They had to fight them here and now, and they didn't even know what they were going against.

Sara looked back at Zhang as he suggested the use of fire magic if she knew any. "Unfortunately for us, I don't know any fire magic, or anything that can generate that type of heat in order for it to be effective.. We'll figure something out, so lets go, the faster we do this the faster we are going to have some hot chocolate." She said and started running towards the fray her pupil changing as she started flooding her body with magic.

As she got the center of the contest, she had to quickly slide as a spear made of ice, soared above her, piercing the wall behind her. Sara looked up, only to see some strange humanoid like beings made of ice approach her, the one that threw the spear at her making a new one from its body. As the odds were against her, Sara decide to remove her eye patch showing her red slitted eye. Dashing forward, she quickly closed the distance and instantly activated her magic, around her arms light appeared and formed itself around them like golden gauntlets and as soon as she was in arms reach from one of the ice elemental's she unleashed a heavy barrage of hits that destroyed the elemental. Not having time to check if the elemental was going to reform, Sara jumped back as her position was bombarded with ice spears. In retaliation she made her own three spears of light that were shot at one of the elemental's each piercing a different body part with the last going straight through his head.

As she landed, she felt pain in her left leg, just above her foot and then an chilly feeling surrounding that area to which she winced. Turning around and looking at the ground she quickly threw a fist at the ground as her body started glowing a light red. As her fist made contact with the ground snow and rocks went everywhere due to her enhanced strength. Below her fist was another of the ice scorpions that was able to sting her with its tail. Whistling sound went through the air as another spear was shot towards her, she quickly turned on her heel to dodge to which she had to throw herself to the side as her leg that was stung was barely responding to her. Before she could think of a way to deal with that, a large shadow came over her as she was getting up, and sent her flying throw the air with a single hit, making her tumble on the ground after landing. Looking up she saw a being made of pure snow like their snowmen look at her, it was a hulking brute with pieces of ice showing on its back. It roared as it looked at her. "I hope Zhang is in a better situation then me." She mumbled as she pushed herself up and prepared for round 2.

WC: 703
Total: 7097
HP: 520/600
MP: 500/600
Spells used: God Eye Enhancement-Heavenly Barrage (C+, single target)
Spears of Light (B, multi target)
Demon's Might (C, buff, +50% strength, 5 posts)

Zhāng had nodded as he heard Sara’s remark about the possible difficulty of the situation they were in at present and unfortunately for them, she didn’t have any fire magic they could use to take the snow/ice scorpions out en masse. However, all was not lost just as he did have a fire type ability he could use, albeit only in his Underworld King take over mode. So, he was not too worried and thus, had focused on the issue at hand urging her to go on ahead

“Understood. You can go ahead of me and be the vanguard for our team again, Sara. It’s more efficient that way and since I have some niche spells we can use in a pinch, I will be in the rearguard position.”

No sooner than he had said that, Sara had dashed off to fight the scorpions and had managed to take out most of the scorpions save a few stragglers that were out of her line of fire at present time.

Alright, time for me to leap into the fray as well. This should be interesting, and I will get to test out some potential spell ideas and combo techniques too, presuming these enemies are durable enough to last, of course…we shall see, I guess.

Musing about the situation thus, he prepared for the impending confrontation by bringing forth his claw and talon spell which he had shown to Sara, but of course this time it was the full version instead of just the demo. As he channeled his mana through his upper limbs and concentrated it in his hands and fingers, and even more so in his fingernails and then on his feet and toes, ending with his toenails; they transformed in quite the flashy manner, bubbling, twisting, and contorting until his fingers and toes were now covered by what looked like long, thick, and razor sharp dragon claws and talons as a result of which the talons had ripped right through his boots and his surgeon’s gloves were shredded by the claws. Then, he went into the battle stance associated with the claw and talon spell after which he murmured

“You’re within range, and you cannot escape your impending fate…here I come.”

A split second after that, he seemingly vanished, but really he just moved at blinding speeds towards their enemies, first the scorpions of which he took out the first of the two remaining in a single move thanks to the multiple striking ability of this particular spell. The other he had seemingly absorbed into his hand after incapacitating it with his multi hit claw and talon spell. After that was done, he looked about for the only other scorpion which he had surmised was remaining and frowned as he saw it stinging Sara and causing her to suffer frostbite. As if that was not bad enough, she had been fighting what seemed like ice elemental humanoid beings armed with ice spears. She had managed to take out two of them, but one was still remaining so he was thankful that Sara had left it for him.

“Please make this easy for me and you and just surrender yourself to me. I promise I won’t treat you too roughly in my lab experiments. It will only be something along the lines of about five mechanical manipulation experiment types and about seven or so of the chemical and magical manipulation experiment types. So, what do you say, my little future guinea pig?”

He asked the ice being while having a rather manic smile on his thin lips and with his eyes wide, glinting with the fierce light of his insatiable curiosity. His fingers were wiggling in a rather disturbing manner as well, and the overall effect it had on the ice being was making it step back a little with what seemed like fear written all over its pale blue, translucent visage. He sighed as yet another future guinea pig seemed to be afraid of him for some unfathomable reason.

“Fine, as you wish. I shall take you by force now since you have left me with no choice. Please don’t say I didn’t warn you after this.”

With that, he took his stance and rushed at the ice being, engaging in melee combat with his spell, striking at what would be its vital spots one after another until he had brought it to a near death state. Then, once again like he had with the scorpions, he knelt down over the incapacitated ice being and placed his right hand over it while closing his eyes and focusing again. A split second after that, the ice being was seemingly absorbed into his hand and not a trace of it remained for anyone to see. Now that the ice beings were dealt with, he arose and rushed to Sara’s location which was only few paces away from where he had found the ice elemental. She was currently being attacked by what looked like a large, white gorilla like creature, so he wasted no time in moving on to his next few spells. He closed his eyes and started to murmur the incantation to invoke the spirit of the Underworld King, Ankhseram while channeling his mana first to his four limbs, then to his body, and lastly to his head. This caused him to be surrounded by a raging vortex of hellfire and darkness magic energy as his body transformed in stages into that of the Underworld King.



After that, he opened his eyes again and called out to Sara, but this time his voice was a lot deeper, and far more gruff like that of a man who was a jaded, middle aged man.

“Please hang on, Sara. I am on my way right now and shall be at your side in a flash!!”

His transformed features only served to lend credence to that, what with his long, coarse looking, waist length jet black hair; his incredibly tanned, weather beaten looking skin; and the various signs of male aging that could be seen on the exposed parts of his body. That said, in his opinion anyway, this form still had its perks. One of those was the snazzy black tuxedo and edgy looking trenchcoat that came with this particular take over form. However, now was not the time for indulging in his usual narcissism. So, he crouched low and within the next few moments, he had seemingly disappeared again, and suddenly reappeared at Sara’s side as if he had teleported, but really it was just ultra high speed movement. Once there, he knelt down, scooped her up gently, and moved back several paces from the snow beast, temporarily out of its sight range as they were now hiding behind one of the buildings in the vicinity. This, of course, caused it to unleash another one of its thunderous roars again as it looked for the two of them. Then, he set Sara down and apologized again for doing the thing she had told him not to

“My apologies once again, Sara. However, this time you’ll have to bear with me since it was a necessary evil. I felt that we had to retreat and regroup to plan our strategy as well as to get that ice scorpion off you before healing you.”

He said in that same baritone, but gruff middle aged male voice as before

-----

OOC:

Post WC: 1239

Personal Total WC: 8268/1500

===

Spells Used:
- Claw & Talon Close Combat (C rank, 34 MP due to Lost Magic, 1/7 posts used)

- Musculoskeletal Mastery (C rank, 34 MP due to Lost Magic: +25% to user's speed for 7 posts, 1/7 posts used)

- Limbs of Ankhseram (C rank, 30 MP, Partial TO, 1/5 posts used)

- Torso of Ankhseram (C rank, 30 MP, Partial TO, 1/5 posts used)

- Head of Ankseram (C rank, 30 MP, Partial TO, 1/5 posts used)

- Avatar of Ankseram (C+ rank, 45 MP, Full TO, , 1/6 posts used)

====

Stats:

Zhang's HP:  460/460

Zhang's MP:  197/455 left

Surprised by the new voice Sara's head snapped to the side and looked at the man that was now standing some distance away. She focused on him only to find it being the same magical source as Zhang, which confirmed to her that this was one of his takeover, as he had shown her that he knew takeover or at least a variation of the said spell type. 'Sara eyes front!' The demon inside her snapped her out of it, just in time for her to turn back and see that the brute of snow was preparing another attack on her. Before she could attempt to move, Zhang had gotten to her and had picked her up again, quickly moving them a safe distance away behind one of the buildings and she was placed down and her partner had apologized to her again. "There is no need to apologize for this Zhang and thank you for getting me out in time." She said and pushed her self up from the ground, wincing slightly as the numbness in her leg was making it hard to move. "That thing doesn't look that smart, we can just overpower it with basic abilities." She said and started thinking of ways that she could fight it, as no matter how low the monster's intelligence was, if she couldn't move fast, she would pay for it. "We can deal with the scorpion sting after we finish him. I don't need to move my feat in order to deal with it." She said, as two golden angelic wings formed behind her. Sara didn't need to move her legs when she could fly. "We'll do the same as before, I'll go in as front line and you be rearguard." With that being said Sara used her right leg that wasn't affected by the strange scorpion's stinger, and jumped slightly into the air before the her wings took care of the rest. 

Sara dashed through the air towards the snow brute, that was rampaging through the contest area and destroying everything that was set up for the event. She moved in front of him and flapped with her wings towards him in order to push him back with a gust of wind and get his attention to which she was quite successful as the brute roared in her face and charged her. Sara was easily able to dodge as the hulking beast wasn't that fast and his attacks had no pattern to them, no style, he was fighting mindlessly which only confirmed her theory of it not being smart enough. Still its hits were strong, she could still feel the previous one that sent her soaring through the snow. Sara used the moment when the beast over slung in order to hit to move behind him, her fists again being covered in the same golden gauntlets as before as she unleashed a barrage of hits on it, as they disappeared and the beast howled in anger Sara didn't let up as she went on it again this time as she flew back, her red eye glowed for a second as magic circle's surrounded the brute. A single hand was brought up with her index and middle finger being upright while the other's were curled into a fist. In a second after that the the magic circle's exploded and the beast screamed in agony from the damage that Sara was dishing out towards him. 

Sara was about to look for Zhang go to him when the beast attempted to move again, this time a black ball, with rings surrounding it formed around her hand and Sara dashed down, pummeling the ball into its back, the energy dug into the snow and ice, but the brute didn't even scream or roar once. Sara flew back up to get some distance in case anything happened, but to her surprise the snow brute just melted into the ground. She looked around and when she found the man she was looking for she flew next to him and sat down her wings disappearing. "Sorry I went a little overboard and he melted, you won't be able to get him for your research." She said with an apologetic smile and looked at her leg where the frostbite had spread a bit, a circle around where she was stung was now completely red. "You said you could so something about this right?" She said and looked at Zhang, getting her leg up a bit and wincing in the process and looking at Zhang with hopeful eyes. 

WC: 760
Total:7857
HP: 520/600
MP: 470/600
Spells used: God Eye Enhancement-Heavenly Barrage (C+, single target)
Shard of Calamity (S, signature single target, burst) 
Buff still active: Demon's Might (C, buff, +50% strength, 4 posts)