Cat & Mouse

"Waow! Queen Hera so big!" Julia would say in her adorable tiny yet thick Iceberg accent, having been running around on board for the duration of the trip. They were flying over the spooky forest... which brought back some pretty sour memories. Needless to say, the entire trip had been hell for anyone who was tall enough to fall overboard, it was like Shuhei hadn't even read the manual on piloting, or cared about the safety of the two poor D-Rank mages on board. Well, if they would die from something as simple as a rough trip, they weren't very good mages, were they? Julia's dark state of mind was at ease from the last time they went here. That last bit of the trip was pretty intense, as the nosedive could have flung her off the ship easily. Julia would kneel down and grab a hold of the ship by a grate near the side. "Master! Pull up!" Her eyes were filled with fear for a brief moment, before the ship would tip back up almost equally as violently, and Julia would be forced to the ground.

Well that was fun and all, but she would lay there now, trying to adjust her hair back downwards. She would walk over to the edge of the ship and peer over as they would be sailing practically on top of the tree tops. Then the anchors would drop, and Shuhei would verify that they were where they needed to go. Julia would look around for the staircase or ladder down, before watching Shuhei blip down to the ground as light particles. Julia would have this astounded look on her face, half like that was the coolest thing she'd ever seen, the other half because of how scary powerful Fiore's mages had become. Sure Iceberg had a few this badass itself, but still, they were in more abundance here. Julia had heard tales of the feats of others in the Blue Pegasus guild, and they all sounded scary badass. Julia would finish raking her hair back down and look at Khalisha, "Alright, Khalisha-chan. We fall to ground like Master Shuhei." She would then hoist herself up and swung her leg around, free falling in a side-saddle sitting position as that's how her legs fell into place. "It's Snow Cloud!" The air around her would quickly form into a decently sized cloud of fluffy snow, which would break her falling speed mid-fall, and allow her to float down to the ground, where she would nod and follow Shuhei to the edge of the forest.

Julia would wait in silence and wonder for a good amount of time about two minutes of just staring in wonder as Shuhei would stand and stare at the forest. Julia would whisper to Khalisha, "Master Shuhei pretty." Another class example of Julia pointing out the obvious, as the light would fall down at just the right angle to make Shuhei look like some kind of god, which Julia had heard he'd been officially declared by the Magic Council recently. Julia would be drooling a little bit as Shuhei would turn around and she would clean up her act within an instant. When Shuhei asked if they were ready, Julia would look over at Khalisha and smile, before looking back to Shuhei and saying with firm confidence, "Yes."

Snow Cloud Duration 4 Posts
90% MP Remaining

Julia would lazily walk behind Shuhei, walking ever so slowly, as she would try to listen to him. She would quickly find that her slow pace would never keep up, so she would put some pep into her step. She would notice the forest getting darker, and get a bit less cheery as she would go along, down until she would have a look on her face that was completely blank. As she walked along the instructions were more clearly given to her and Khalisha. Julia would toy around with a snowball she made, and then would nod as Shuhei would flash away. Her eyes would burn a bit from the flash of light in the darkness, but she would merely rub them a little bit. Julia would recall all of the details, and found the challenge quite acceptable, however she would find a little qualm about it. "Hey Khalisha, how one see invisible?" she would ask her partner. With this she would wait for a response, and begin looking around for stuff. Maybe a signal pertaining to the whereabouts of the Aphaean Hind. Of course this much would be in vain, Julia just knew it. Looking for something that was invisible was completely pointless without some kind of tracking point.

Suddenly the brush to her left would rustle. Julia's head snapped to the left to see nothing there, and she would grin as she would leap over into the bushes and managed to actually find something. As she would begin to hold onto it, she would notice the huge struggle that she was undergoing with it. "Shorter than I imagined!" she would declare. From the bushes she would burst out holding a Komodo Dragon in a sleeper hold, trying to wrestle it to the ground blindly. It would contort around and try to break free of her grip but she was especially not letting go at this point, this was a freaking Komodo Dragon! Julia would tighten the grip to he most fierce she could manage, and look up at Khalisha, "Help please? Komodo Dragon very venomous!"

Snow Cloud Duration 3 Posts

90% MP Remaining

Julia would watch Khalisha hurriedly shuffle through the cards she had in her hand as she would try and choke out the komodo dragon, teeth gritting, yet she was somehow still absolutely adorable while doing this. As Khalisha pulled out the meat with haste, Julia would restrain a little bit. However, a bird would sweep down and snatch the meat, "What? Why? How even?" Julia was confused, and astounded at the same time. She would slam her knee into the komodo dragon's back to harm it, and keep it restrained while Khalisha would seem to passively just accept what had happened and move on to finding a new card or set of cards to use.

Julia managed to restrain the lizard for a little bit longer, but would watch as Khalisha stacked a pair of cards and pulled out a yellow sword. Julia would yelp a little bit at the sword was swung, and the Komodo Dragon slumped over. "Ah... Did you k-k... wait..." Julia would stammer as she would get off the Komodo Dragon, which was still breathing. She sighed with relief for a moment and would quickly begin to run off from it. "Come on Khalisha, let's get away from this thing before it gets up," she would say. Julia would run deeper into the woods for a few dozen meters... and wind up not being able to see the Komodo Dragon anymore. She would kneel down, looking at her ankle, "Ugh... branch from shrubs scuffed me." A bit of a scratch was there, nothing disabling, but that would need a little bit of disinfectant when they got back. Julia would blink and then remember that it was winter time. She looked up, "It has not snowed here yet..." The woods were thick, yet it was winter in this deciduous forest.

Julia would stand back up and look around, "We have been tricked." With that a loud giggle would erupt throughout the forest, and like some kind of wave, all the trees would suddenly be cleared of leaves, with snow all around the ground, though thin. Some of the snow would make a patch on her ankle... a single bird flying around overhead, but otherwise this forest was probably more spooky than before. Totally deceased... "Ghosts should leave us alone now," she would claim with a dull tone, careful and quiet.

Snow Cloud Duration 2 Posts
90% MP Remaining
Snow on Ground in immediate vicinity is worth 20% Proxy MP

Julia would find herself relatively unfazed by the sudden shit of weather, asides a slight sigh of relief. Julia was practically made out of snow and found herself accustomed to winter. Late Spring weather was not her cup of tea, you see. As Khalisha would suddenly stumble back a bit Julia would look up at her face, having not heard her previous statement as it seemed irrelevant, then followed her rather focused stare to see a bird. It had just begun talking all of a sudden, holding one of Card's cards in its beak just a moment ago. Julia would clasp her hands and would cheer a bit, "Waow! A talking bird!" She would quickly clamp her hands over her mouth, knowing she was too loud.

Suddenly the bird would take off and immediately after, Khalisha did. Julia would look around, "Where could Snow Cloud be?" Khalisha was almost out of sight as the Snow Cloud would finally arrive, and Julia would hop on, and take off at an astonishing 35 mph. Some of the best mobility magic had to offer too. Julia would watch the tree line, and would hurriedly slide around the corner seeing the bird's height ascending and Khalisha's hopes fading slightly. Julia would grip a bit on the snow cloud as she would ascend to be of height, and she would move straight ahead, beating the bird's speed by a fair sum, allowing her to zip around it with ease. "Stop, Khalisha-chan want talk with you!" she would request a bit loud, as the bird would slam right into her, ruining his mobility, toppling Julia off her cloud, and sending them into freefall. The bird wasn't catching enough wind to fly up and Julia was a bit dazed, her eyes doing that comical little spiral shape that represented that she was pretty much helpless in this scenario.

Snow Cloud Duration 1 Post
90% MP Remaining
20% Proxy MP Remaining

70% MP Remaining

'Paralyze' and 'Sword' done cooling down after this post

Water Bridge Duration 10 posts

Julia would remain fairly dazed as she would fall into the water bridge, and then look around from underwater. She would see the bird that knocked her over flailing around in the water, unable to get anymore lift due to wet wings or something. Khalisha would pull he out of the water along with said bird before she could look around any further, and she would immediately realize how other people must feel cold normally. She would shiver tremendously, being unable to just dry off or turn into snow bit by bit. Julia would look at the bird, a bit self-centered-ly spoke, "Did not stop fast enough."

As some icicles would form from her nostrils quite quickly, she would exhale a cloud of frosty air. Julia would watch her snow cloud would dissipate in the sky, turning into some snow which sprinkled gently over the scene. She would huff a bit, not getting as much use out of the cloud as she'd hoped. The bird seemed to be more relieved than Julia was, as she was unable to filter the cold through herself, and the bird probably understood cold more than she did anyways. She would speak up a bit more, "Sorry for fall, Khalisha. I forgot timing." With that she would shiver one last huge amount before the water on her person would complete freeze, sandwiched between her cold and the outside cold. A magic circle would form over her chest and the ice would turn into power snow, which fell to the ground. Julia would sigh with relief now that the cold sensation was gone for her. However she found herself worried. "We should find warmth or start campfire," she would say, worried about the bird, who could freeze any minute now. Julia may have been used to sub zero weather, but the bird was much less likely to be.

Snow Cloud on Cooldown; 5 Posts

Powder Snow Used; Cooldown 1 post

Powder Snow Attained 10% Proxy MP

80% MP Remaining (-10% From Powder Snow)

30% Proxy MP Remaining

Bridge has 9 posts remaining

70% MP remaining

Julia would nod and begin channeling he magic a little bit, to get a feel for the environmental snow. "Alright then... Igloo... or snow hut..." she would say. After a minute or so of thinking, she would grin. Her talents were but to use as she would begin crafting a snow hut. After about an hour, when Khalisha would arrive, Julia had finished crafting a very elegant one story home crafted from snow. "Teehee. We could live here with a little bit of heating," she would say. With that, though Khalisha had returned and began setting up a campfire in a small clearing. After cursing herself for falling for an illusion again.

"Spirits are clever," she would say with a dull tone, "I glad you make it back okay." It wouldn't be much longer that Julia would hear from the bird again. This bird was a mysterious bird indeed, as it would agree to answer their questions, if they first answered its. Julia would hear 'Snow' be said, and she would look at the Bird, listening to its riddle carefully. "Hmm..." she would think with a hum. The riddle was a tricky one. Julia sat down next to her house and would begin thinking deeply upon it. It would be a few more minutes before she would just start to laze off, remembering stuff from her childhood. She would cringe a bit, as she would seem to remember something bad, the majority of her childhood that would be.

With that she would try and remember the riddle. "Bury deep, Pile on stones, My mind will always, Dig up them bones." It suddenly linked up to her, she would smile, just in time for Khalisha to look over at her, "I have answer." She would sit by the bird and speak up now, "I have buried them deep, underneath stones I build to keep under. Yet my mind always brings them back up. These are memories." Julia giggled a bit and would look to see if she had gotten it right.

Snow Cloud Cooldown 4 posts
Powder Snow Cooldown Over

80% MP Remaining
30% Proxy MP Remaining

Magic Pool at 70%

Bridge has 8 posts remaining

Julia had a grin on her face as she was correct, which made her clap a little bit. Khalisha would soon find her answer as well, and Julia would have so much joy, she was about to jump. Suddenly it all exploded in her face as the bird would go on to say that she and Khalisha had yet another riddle. "Mean bird. You say we must answer your... questions... ugh!" she would have realized that she was not being played or anything, this bird could ask them questions forever if it wanted to and it wasn't breaking any rules.

The word ice was brought up, so Julia would have to pay attention now, as it was her turn again. It was a question about a murder, a riddle nonetheless. Julia was the most savvy person on this kind of stuff, her mother being a very dark mage would would often tell her little such stories like this one. "Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered ice tea. One girl drank them very fast and drank five of them in the time it took the other to drink one. The girl who drank one died while the other survived. All of the drinks were poisoned. Why did the one who drank MORE ice tea survive, when the other did not?" the riddle was pretty difficult to people who didn't ponder this kind of thing from day to day for the first 8 years of their life.

Julia would immediately answer, before the bird even had time to actually move on to its next riddle, in the middle of his cawing laughter, "The poison was in the ice... Oh, and the hint wasn't necessary." She would scoop up a bit of snow from the ground and began to munch on it like a snack, a strange look of satisfaction overflowing on her face. "Snow is good~" she would declare.

Snow Cloud Cooldown 3 posts

80% MP Remaining
30% Proxy MP

Bridge has 7 posts remaining

70% Magic Pool Remaining

Julia would giggle as Khalisha would finally get her riddle right after a few more minutes of thinking. It was astounding the amount of patience that the bird would have, most birds she'd heard of generally lacked the kind of patience that said bird had. Finally the information was divulged, and Julia didn't quite catch it very well, "What? Another riddle? Boring..." As the bird would fly off she would reach her hand out to ask it to wait at the exact same time as realizing what the rhyme it had given them meant. "Oh wait, now I get it. Teehee," she would giggle.

Khalisha would suddenly offer some words of suggestion pertaining to what they could do. There were two options, staying up all night, and getting to sleep. Julia would think about this. Board games were involved, according to Khalisha's translation of the cards, and Julia would have to think just a little bit harder. Her eyes would brighten up at the sight of the game cards in fact, she didn't really get to try them all out. The wonders of the outside world were phenomenal and infinite, she was like a kid in a candy store, all the time with cool stuff like this. Julia would grin a bit, "Well I never stay up all night. Maybe I give it good try this time?" It was an irresponsible decision, but a girl like Julia would always want to do some cool things like this.

Needless to say, though, Julia is still just a little girl. She would pass out after the second play of the first game she picked out, which happened to be chess. The first game was spent learning the ropes, but Julia would have put too much thought into it all and passed out from youthful exhaustion. It was a full day's work after all. As a side note, Julia's Snow Hut was shockingly comfortable once you got past the fact that it was mostly cold stuff. The snow mattresses were fluffy yet firm, the pillows were primarily fluffy, the bed frames were hard as brick. She even had a fire place, made of snow. Yeah, that's right, Julia managed to figure out how to maintain a fireplace, without it melting. The trick was actually a pit tunnel under the fireplace where the smoke and ash would go down into with a small hole outside the hut where the smoke would exit. Once the hut was warm enough, she would cap off the top of the fireplace and the hole outside, make sure the door was shut, and put out the fire. Give it an hour and Julia can figure out how to do just about anything with enough snow.

Restful Sleep Occurred!
Durations Ended!
Cooldowns Over!

MP Restored!
30% Proxy MP

Magic pool at 90%

'Fire' and 'Sword' on cooldown for 2 posts

Julia would awake to the sensation of being scooped up into the arms of Khalisha and the smell of complete distress, and lizards. Her eyes would barely open up a bit as she felt herself weightlessly suspended in the air, and gravity doing its work, as they would hit the ground. Julia would cringe a bit, not feeling too uneasy, but suddenly Khalisha was smacked aside, and Julia felt her weight hit the ground. Julia would now have her face in the snow, just as she would have a few moments ago. "Khalisha?" Julia would say, somewhat relaxed still, as she would struggle to force herself to her feet, adrenaline not coursing through her veins at enough of a rate to get her up and moving. A Komodo dragon snapped at her face, and she would tiredly fall back onto her rear end. "Oh... Komodo dragons again... and big man," she would say, too tired to get pumped. Julia was the kind of girl who enjoyed a solid 10 hours of sleep, though this happened at around 8, which was sufficient, but Julia would need to scramble to wake up.

Suddenly Khalisha had a sword of fire in her hand and swung it to slash the man, dealing pretty much no damage at all to the man, in comparison to what she would normally pull off against foes. Julia would get a bit of a glint in her eye as Khalisha declared that Cat and Mouse would emerge victorious from the situation. The young snow mage would force herself back up to a stand, and would speak up, "Right. We win, so go home!" Julia was a bit of a philistine in this kind of situation, unaware that this man was a hermit who had taken a liking to these woods. Even if she did, she wouldn't be able to understand him. Hermits made no sense to her. Julia would raise her hand up a bit, as the snow would raise to her whim, and she would thrust her hand forward as she would attempt to punch the man, while it did land Julia's current meager magical strength made it little more than a snowball to the man. It was shown that he was very uncomfortable with the temperature differences. A komodo dragon would snap at Julia's leg, which she immediately turned into snow and reformed from different snow. "Danger danger!" she would mutter to herself.

Snow Body 1/5 Posts

100% MP Remaining

30% Proxy MP Remaining

Magic Pool At 80%

'Fire' and 'Sword' on cooldown for 1 post

'Poison' and 'Nausea' will last for 2 posts

Khalisha posioned for 2 posts

Julia watched as Khalisha turned into her Guardian form, remembering it well from the mission where they guarded that couple's wedding. It was a powerful form, ready to block the man's onslaught of attacks, which was good, because that man tacked on quite the onslaught. After a moment, though, the man would turn on Julia as she would look at him in a tired manner. "Sheesh," she would mutter to herself, still not quite awake. The man would do this weird, skillful, twirling thing that freaked Julia out, and she would hop back a step or two, before letting her power swell for a moment. Suddenly a Komodo dragon would attack her from the left flank as the man would wind up something huge with that stick of his. Khalisha managed to save Julia with a distracting cocktail of nausea inducing gas and poison. Julia would jump away from the komodo dragon, and slide a bit as she would land and watch Khalisha get bit by a komodo dragon. "Noo! Khalisha be careful!" Julia would call out in what was probably vain, after all the poison was already there.

Julia would remain slightly panicked but now more awake, her resolve showing though a bit. "I'll kill you..." she would declare to the hermit, her magical aura fluxing upwards to a great degree. It would be visible now, and Julia's angry glare would pierce through this magical aura... almost demonic in nature, though her eyes glowed more of a white color for a moment. Julia's magical aura would suddenly double in size with the accompanied sound of something breaking, perhaps a limiter? Whatever the case, Julia would suddenly calm down, and the magical aura would fade. Suddenly the man would be coming at her with the staff twirling it, Julia was left unafraid somehow, and she would raise her hand as a wall of snow collided with the impact, "Snow Fort Minor."

Julia would shove the man back and hold her hand off to the side, palm facing skywards. A small tornado would generate, in her hand, and she would speak, "Boreas." She would wave her hand with the palm still facing upwards, throwing the small twister at the man. This would immediately expand into humongous blizzard whirlwind, which was like an explosion. Julia would speak, "If we do not see staff, magic won't work on us." She would grin a bit as she would raise her hand above her head, palm skyward again, as the snow from the immediate vicinity would form into a snowman hovering an inch or so over Julia's palm.

The sudden shock from Khalisha being bitten and poisoned by a komodo dragon kicked Julia up to C-Rank! (For the thread and made official upon success in the exam)

Snow Fort Minor (off of Proxy MP) 2 post duration

Boreas (C-Rank Blizzard Generation Spell) 3 posts duration.

Sno-Man Bomb (Off Proxy MP) -- Charged and ready for use.

Lucifer's Aura, Post 1

90% MP Remaining

20% Proxy MP Remaining

60% Magic Pool Remaining

Fire and Sword no longer on cooldown

Nausea and poison will last for 1 more post

Water and Wave on cooldown for 2 posts

Enemy enraged for 2 posts

'Capture' and 'Fly' Cards on top of Khalisha's deck

Julia would stand, watching through the snow with her red eyes that pierced straight through the whiteness of it all. Her arm was outstretched upwards, palm skywards, floating just over it by a few inches or so was a snowman, about the size of a child, 3.5 feet tall, 2 feet wide at the base snowboulder's diameter. The wave of water would hit and soak the man, in a wave format. The man was bowled over by the water, as nature would finish giving Julia enough strength for the finisher. Julia would focus magic that she'd sapped from the area into the Sno-Man Bomb. "Here go, Sno-Man Alpha.... Beta!" she would call her spell. Each Greek letter spoken would time perfectly with a slightly more demonic appearing and 3 feet wider on all dimensions Sno-man Bomb. Julia would giggle a bit as the hermit was cursing out words about how 'cerld' he was and questioning in a pissed-off tone about the 'serdden snersterm'.

Julia couldn't make heads or tails of his accent, but it was funny to see the guy struggle with such a little bit of snow. Julia jump up, grip the Sno-Man Bomb with her fingers in a clawing motion, and she would chuck the giant demonic man of snow at the man, smashing him for an equivalent of damage to 1-C-Rank Damage+1-D-Rank Damage+C-Rank strength. This would be further bumped up by the resulting explosion of a 40 feet diameter, tacking on an extra C-Rank and D-Rank of damage. Julia's Lineage had its uses, as this was very similar to how she had defeated the ex-boyfriend who'd crashed the wedding. The explosion was a whirling blizzard that avoided damaging innocent creatures and allies, but was an opposite whirl to the previously established blizzard from Boreas, and while overpowering it, cancelled out the blindingness of the snow. It didn't matter, as the snow would now fall like normal precipitation. The hermit found himself buried upside down in snow. Julia would quickly take the man's staff, and bust it on the ground. "Freak..." she would say with a giggle. Julia would grin as the dawn would finally break, and it would glisten to her eyes, as she had just accidentally given a deer a good dusting of snow, and it now appeared snow white entirely... excluding its eyes, which appeared to be nonexistent. She would look at the deer, which was staring at her, in that weird freezing reflex deers had when a car is about to hit them. The snow on it was from Boreas, which Julia didn't know was safe, but was safe, unless you were wet, like the poor, poor hermit.

Lucifer's Aura: Post 2 (Used for 2 extra D-Rank equivalents of power)

Sno-Man Bomb: Amped by Lucifer's Aura and Used/2 post cooldown

Boreas: Overpowered by higher power winds in opposite direction/3 post cooldown

Snow Fort Minor: 1 post cooldown

90% MP Remaining

20% Proxy MP Remaining

Magic Pool at 50%

Nausea and Poison no longer on cooldown

Water and Wave on cooldown for 1 post

Rage on cooldown for 2 posts

Capture on cooldown for 4 posts

Julia would watch as Khalisha sprung into action upon the hind even making a move, launching a card and both verifying it was invisible by dusting off its shoulder, and binding it in magic. The young albino native to Iceberg would giggle as the cat girl would become a dragon, and grab the hind and offer a lift with her tail. Julia grabbed a hold of the tail, and was lifted up along with the dragon and the hind by the humongous wings. Julia would climb along Khalisha's back and sat on the head of the large dragon, with the hugest smile on her face. "Ahahaha! Flying on dragon fun!" she would declare as she saw the browned forest below her, with white snow past that making an abstract mural of nature.

As the two of them would see Shuhei ahead by the airship, she would attain a large sweatdrop of anime proportions that could fill a big gulp drinking container. "Khalisha, we just take all night to find hind. You think Shuhei mad?" she would ask, with a tone of voice that sounded rather worried. Whether or not she would get the answer she wanted, she would hop off the dragon's head once Khalisha went into the proverbial landing gear, and ran up to Shuhei, and clung to his lower torso and snuggled lightly, "Master! We got hind for you! It was hard because it invisible and protected by weird forest hermit freak!" As she said that she would form a cloud to place the captured hind on and she would whisk it up to the airship.

Snow Cloud from Proxy MP

4 posts duration

15% Proxy MP Remaining

90% MP Remaining