Johnny let out a sigh, though this time it was a sigh of relief as he reached the top step, and nearly jumped back in surprise as he saw Evelyn. His face showed a mixture of embarrassment and shock. She seemed more...lively and reenergized. 

"Ok Johnny," she said in a calm voice that seemed deadly, "Your best bet right now is to go back down."

Maybe she was right, but Johnathan wasn't about to wimp out, or walk down those steps of torture. He summoned his billhooks and got into a stance. "You know," He began, "I have to apologize to you for striking you down a few days ago. Though that attack wasn't on even terms, unlike now." After this fight, Johnny could gauge how much stronger he still needs to become. 

"Because I'm a gentlemen, I'll let you attack first."

((Kick her a**, Johnny!))

With a thud the glass projectile dug deep into the arm of Maximilian who neither flinched or immediately responded to being attacked. Uncovering his face from his hands he languidly pulled himself to his feet. It stung, it felt less painful than what Maximilian expected, but it still stung. Grabbing for the shard of glass he turned towards his attacker and eyed him head to toe before pulling the small glass projectile from his arm, but to his surprise it wasn't there. Shaking his head he ignored the issue for now and turned himself back to Daniel.

"You couldn't just leave me alone, could you?" The boy groaned as the ground around both him and Daniel began to shake violently. "But if that's the way you want it-" he paused, placing his hands into his pockets he began to walk towards Daniel with a look of complete emptiness in his eyes.

"-then I'll give you what you want." and with that Maximilian stomped his right foot heavily onto the ground releasing an enormous torrent of water directly beneath Daniel's feet

Logan took the first strike, swinging his claymore horizontally at Li. Naturally, he ducked under the sword while attempting to circle around Logan. Li tapped the ground once more in his new position, placing another spirit ward. If this worked like he thought it would, he should be able to remove Logan's armaments in the same way he can exorcise spirits. Attacking Logan head on was suicide, so it didn't hurt to try. While still keeping low, he attempted to sweep Logan's leg in order to buy enough time to reposition and place another ward.


____________________________________

The fall wasn't as bad as Dom thought it would be. He laid down in the hay for what felt like a few minutes before being rudely awoken by Evelyn.

"I'm o- You have got to be kidding me!"

With those short words, a flurry of light flew at Dom, exploding one after the other. He did manage to use his arms to shield his face, but that didn't help as much as he hoped. He felt like his body has just been burned to cinders, but his skin was perfectly fine, still in pain, but looking ok. With the little bit of energy he had, Dom muttered out what he could.

"She...is so going to pay for that."

OOC: I love being comic relief.

The tiger was gone though it left its mark, clawing at him and tearing his shirt. He was still feeling the pain but he forced himself to ignore it as he rised to his feet. As if he wasn't embarrassed enough, Lotus was taunting him, practically inviting him to use her as target practice. He growled and raised his hand in her direction, only to flip her off and drop it. He still had a different problem, so he turned to Lloyd and fired a bolt at him instead. "COME ON! I'M NOT DONE, ARE YOU?!"

Logan followed Li with his eyes as the upperclassman ducked the blow and circled behind him. This was to be expected, of course. He was a skilled martial artist, and nimble to boot. Li didn't pose much of a threat to Logan as things stood, but knowing him, he almost certainly had a plan. It would take more than brute force to best him. Suddenly, Logan felt his legs shift out from under him. This was his chance to take Li by surprise. Reacting quickly, Logan twisted his torso, bringing the business end of his targe down on top of his opponent as he toppled.

Alice screamed as she was picked up and tossed by the griffon, gripping the crossbow as if her life depended on it. It seemed the totem was not only fast, but also nimble. She landed a few feet in front of the tower and tumbled into the hard stone. Ouch. With a quick glance upwards she saw Grayson on his way to intercept Phora. Moving quickly and quietly, she stood and stalked up behind Lloyd, before bringing the crossbow down on his head at an angle. The senior felt a little bad about it, but oh well. Orders were orders.

The totem smirked as Grayson charged at her. "Looking for this?" She taunted, waving the flag about. "Come and get it!" The pixie dodged the attack with precise, agile motions, maneuvering behind the griffon. She reached out with her free hand and stroked the creatures back. "Your feathers are so soft... I want to ride!"

Daniel sensed the water before he felt the ground rumble. It was bizarre, as if his opponent's energy flowed from the water. While contemplating this, he forgot the water was indeed a threat and the torrent blasted him off his feet. Picking his soaked body off the floor, he found the glass orb a few feet away and manipulated the object back into his hand. Having learned a new trick, he had a new strategy in mind, so he morphed the orb into a thick square shield-like object with a handle on the back. Feeling the flow of the water underground, he charged his opponent with a vigor rarely seen in the boy.

Lotus finally broke. She had to leave the flag and help Lloyd. She ran multiple ideas through her mind. Finally she took a deep breathe before diving of the edge zipping towards the unsuspecting Alice. She allowed her claws to manifest as she dove. As she fell she summoned Dot. Dot did what she thought could help, Dot pounced at Damian again this time aiming for a hit to his arms. As Dot pounced she roared loudly, a certain battle frenzy urging her and her master.

Evelyn raised an eyebrow at Johnny as he spoke.

"Disregarding the fact you attacked me from behind and you were strengthened by a demonic entity" she said while spinning her glaive above her head deftly, "Though I do commend your...gentleman-hood," she added dryly. That being said, she ran towards the boy at a full sprint with her glaive poised to strike him, though just as she got within striking distance she launched herself in the air flipping backwards to where she had originally stood, while firing an explosive wisp where she had taken off right in front of Johnny.

"Persistent aren't we?" Lloyd said after receiving another lightning bolt from Damian. That was around the same time Lloyd felt a sharp pain in the back of his head. He glanced over his shoulder, finding it to be Alice. While Lloyd was quickly trying to come up with a plan to deal with the both of them, Lotus and Dot appeared with Dot aimed at Damian and Lotus going after Alice. Lloyd decided to let the two girls have their cat fight, and casually walked over to Damian though slowly, to let Dot have It's way with him before he got over there. However on the way he glanced up at Grayson to see how he was faring. 

Grayson couldn't charge back first into the tower or do a suicide dive into the ground as Phora could easily escape before the impact and he couldn't spin because the pixie could be flung off. Frankly none of them were brilliant ideas to begin with anyway. So, Grayson violently flapped it's wings to hit Phora. 

----------

"That's beside the point." Johnny said in a matter of fact tone as he reached out to slash Evelyn, though suddenly she flipped backwards back to her original position resulting in him missing her by a few strands of hair. The next thing Johnny knew, he was blinded by light from the wisps but felt minimal damage due to Arx. As long as Johnathan was marked with Fors and Arx, this uphill battle seemed slightly less hopeless. 

Johnny then charged at Evelyn, his billhooks raised as he intended to slash them down diagonally in an X shape manner. 

 

The two older boys seemed so focused on beating the heck out of each other that Derrek's pestering didn't seem to even register with them. Oh well, maybe by this point the flag at his team's tower had already been nabbed and he could relax there in peace and at least say he tried. Derrek totally missed the scene in the sky before hand, and had no idea of what lied between here in there. He also opt'd out of retrieving Tsubaki's boot from the scuffle, to much risk to himself to risk messing with others. Who knows, mayhaps, the article would be used to turn a tide or simply be a message to the winner.

---

"What? Why? Did I draw you wrong? Wakarimasen!" Tsubaki had reached the Plaza but was having a time of it with the compass, that she had just dismissed with the end of her sentence. She began pacing around and around the fountain, trying to figure out why she was needed here, where no one else seemed to be, and literally the last place anyone would go. "Am I to defend the Plaza? But there are so many angles, I could never do it with one little sigil at a time."

She circled the fountain once more before piecing what she said together. Effectively the whole Plaza was a one big circle. She paced to the edge of it, and hesitated for a moment. She was told to push her limits, sure, but what she was about to do was crazy. This big? That curved? Why, she hadn't even ever used that sigil before, since it was "Only for dire situations" so her previous sensei said. Throwing all that aside Tsubaki began running the perimeter, the energy used to make magic happen trailing behind her.

Though Maximilian had succeeded in striking back at his opponent, the now charging boy didn't seem interested in leaving him alone. Once more, he seemed intent on charging directly into Maximilian. Something had to be done fast and the easiest way to slow down his opponent was to encumber his movements. Summoning forth yet another wave of water, Maximilian was quick to send the water low towards Daniel's feet but instead of hoping for the water to sweep Daniel away he instantaneously froze the water that had already settled to the ground creating thick and uneven patches of ice all about the ground. In doing this Maximilian also froze the water that had drenched Daniel earlier, large shards of ice formed all about Daniel's body, his scalp, arms, legs, and face. The ice, as ice tends to do, immediately bonded to Daniel's skin. With most of his work done Maximilian gave himself a quick gesture of approval in the form a single clap before quickly back peddling away from the fields of ice he had created.

The tiger was pouncing at him again, roaring as it did. He was beginning to wish they were extinct. Of course, Damian's rage at this point had evolved into something else entirely. Insanity may seem to others as the reason behind Damian's actions, as he leaped at the tiger, thrusting his arm into its roaring mouth, while yelling various obscenities as its sharp teeth brought pain to his arm. Much of the yelling was not due to the pain itself however. With his arm inside a tiger, he fired a bolt while firing another simultaneously at Lloyd with his free hand.

Daniel panicked momentarily as he felt the chill of ice spreading throughout his body. He kicked off his shoes, which were now mostly frozen, and watched the ground in front of him turn to ice as well. "Smart..." He grumbled as he watched Maximillian retreat. The water was simple to counter, but that ice trick was another story. With Max long gone, he figured he'd might as well head through the gate and continue with the training exercise, letting his spiritual senses guide him. Straight ahead, he felt something similar to magical energies being drawn forth, so the Vitri headed straight for it. He arrived at the plaza, taking in the giant fountain, before his eyes fell upon Tsubaki running about. What sort of magic was this? "... Aren't you on my team?" He said simply, following her motions with his eyes. "Why don't you put some shoes on?"

"Whoah, easy boy!" Shouted Phora as Grayson tried different methods of shaking the fairy off. Suddenly he smashed his wings together, forcing Phora to kick off its back. "M-mean..." The offended pixie decided to put an end to this, and from high above the tower began producing a high volume of sleep and hallucination inducing pixie dust, scattering it about with wind magic while cautiously keeping an eye on the griffon.

Alice hated these training exercises. She tended to have so much fun that someone would wind up seriously injured. Still, this one was different. Nobody here was on her level, and even if someone was, it meant little with a wall of magic keeping the risk down. It was almost boring. Proving her point, she was pounced on from atop a tower with little affect. "Hmmm..." She said while Lotus was on top of her. "I just realized, I can do pretty much anything I want." With that, she headbutted Lotus in the face and shoved her off, following up with a kick to the stomach.

Dot did the only thing one could do when something was forced down your throat, she bit down. The zap of lighting then followed causing the tiger to tense up. The pain Dot felt as a shock pulsed around her inner parts was almost unbearable, but Dot held on to the boy's arm. After that Dot began clawing at Damian's soft underbelly.
Lotus, after landing on Alice, was quickly thrown of and kick. Lotus quickly grab Alice's leg and pulled attempting to pull Alice down.