Doubtless, August had struck a nerve with this new girl. With little warning she lunged at him, clearly bent on clawing his eyes out. Caught slightly off guard, August hopped backwards, avoiding all but one of her outstretched fingers. A nail nicked him under the eye, leaving a thin red trail behind it.

“Whoa, sweetheart,” he said, putting his hand to his cheek. “No need to be in such a rush. These things are more fun if you draw them out.”
He glanced at his fingertips as he dodged a second blow. They were red. The little squirt had drawn blood. She was surprisingly ferocious for one her size, and she meant business. August grinned; perhaps this trifle of an engagement could be fun after all.

He jumped behind the girl, taunting; “And you should quit with the growling, babe. It’ll damage your angelic vocal chords.”
As the junior landed, he planted his feet, spun on his toes and delivered a vicious backhand swing with his ringed left hand, aimed squarely for Lotus’ head.

enraged Lotus turned and got smacked in the face. She jumped back and unleashed a roar. Shortly after Dot appeared again. This guy had done it he awoke a tiger, literally. The smell of blood turned on Dot hunting instincts. Dot and Lotus lunged at him with claws. It was a flash of black and white. They were hoping to draw more blood.

Gregory started to take a step towards Fiona, but paused. She looked clearly shocked for a moment, but quickly regained her composure, focusing Phora. She didn't have a good control over her chains, but he liked how she managed to not panic after getting injured. He was in Tsubaki's protection, but it would take too long for both of them to cover Fiona before Phora attacks.

"So what does yours taste like?" Fiona asked, her arm shaking but holding. She wanted to capture Phora, but with what just happened, she knew that would be too difficult for her. Taking a deep breath, she slowly entwined chains on her arms, showing pain when it touched the wound. And as quickly as she could, she sent parts of the chains she sent out towards Phora, and ran towards the other two.

Taking a cue, Gregory dashed towards her as well, attempting to cover her.

Things almost immediately heated up between Lotus and August, as was expected, and so without further delay Maximilian made a quiet retreat towards Alice. If anything this would give him a chance to converse with the upperclassman and entirely avoid having to fight his 'colleagues'.

"Why do you do all this?" Maximilian began once he had finally entered within a soft speaking distance to Alice. "What reasons do you have for participating in this program, and who is it that you're fighting and fighting for?" Maximilian was honestly interested in Alice's answer. Since day 1 Alice had been, in a way leading, the group; but it seemed that just like all the other students she too only knew half the tale. This was more than just some black and white struggle, and yet to Maximilian it seemed like all the others simply saw two blatant shades. There had to be grey somewhere, some information that was being withheld so that the students would continue on without asking more questions.

August’s swing landed with a satisfying thud; the girl would be nursing a sore jaw for a few days at least. For the moment however, the pain seemed only to fuel her anger. He had to hand it to her. Contrary to what one might believe by observing her small frame, she was a fighter.

Lotus was back in the ring in an instant, growling again. The growl turned to a ferocious roar, akin to that of a wild animal. The sound surpassed what August thought were the limits of the human voice. It was rather terrifying, actually. Still, theatrics would not get the best of him. His opponent remained a small girl, regardless of how tough she was.

"You know, you're pretty cute when you're ang-" he began. Before he could finish, however, he was cut off by something altogether unexpected. An enormous white tiger appeared by the girl's side, seemingly out of nowhere. The beast and its master lunged at the freshman, murderous intent evident in their gaze. This fight had gone from an afternoon spar to a death match all too quickly.

August's survival instincts took over. He dove to the right just as the animal was about to land on him, hitting the unforgiving floor hard. The tiger was much quicker on its feet. Its big paws touched the ground, and in the same breath it was turned around and headed towards him again. Desperate, August reached into his jacket, his fingers clutching the comforting form of a lighter. In one swift motion he pulled it out and flicked it on, holding it in front of him. Focusing all his attention on the flame, he formed it into large ball of fire and with as much precision as he could manage, willed it in the direction of his oncoming assailant. He was uncertain whether his powers would have any effect on a magic tiger, but with any luck the blast would provide a sufficient distraction for him to get back on his feet.

The tiger slid to a stop tripping over it's own feet as it fell in front of August. Lotus walked over to August from the other side she was slightly amazed by the fireball that appeared, but that was quickly overcome again by anger. As she kicked at August's hands to knock away the lighter and attempt to keep him on the ground. Dot tried to stand but August had burn her paw badly. As Lotus noticed (ooc: haha that rhymed) Dot's pain that fueled her anger. She began to kicked harder and faster. She felt a weird sensation in her hand as if her hand had got burned even though her hand wheren't near the fire.Dot let out a small roar before limping back away from August letting Lotus do the fighting for now.
"You hurt Dot!" Lotus yelled as the kicking continued. She wanted to hurt him as much as he hurt Dot or even worse.

OOP: Kiki's out for a bit, there's some plot stuff laid out already so bear with me please

Phora was growing quite bored with this fight. The one with the healing powers wasn't complying with the plan she had set for him and the girl with the red hair didn't even scream when she cut her. In fact, the boy in the back who had eyes like an empty fish bowl still hadn't made a move. It was like there was nobody inside the body, just an empty shell. He reminded the pixie of the zombies Alice once made her fight. Just as she was about to launch herself claw-first at him, the red haired girl spoke up.

"So what does yours taste like?" She asked with a quivering voice and body.

"... My what?" Phora said, forgetting all about her target. "Oh, you mean my blood? Why would I know what that tastes like? That would be like... What's the word for when a human eats a human? Carnivalism, right?" That being said, her curiosity was piqued. Paying no mind to her opponents as they reorganized themselves she bit down on her right arm and held her mouth there for a few seconds. When she withdrew a nearly translucent blue fluid was visible running down her arm. "Have you ever eaten a grasshopper? Because it tastes like one. No offense, but my blood tastes a lot better than your blood." She shrugged apologetically, as if this were some grave insult, then suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be fighting them.

Vaguely she recalled having some sort of plan, but those tended to involve a lot of times where she wasn't fighting, so it was promptly abandoned in favor of a more direct approach. The witchcraft girl looked like a great target, so without a second thought Phora decided to charge towards her.

__________________________________________________________________________


"Nice to see a pair of students out for blood." Alice said, watching August and Lotus's vicious 'sparring'. "Reminds me of the good old days where the freshmen were orientated by getting thrown in a pit together. Still, I always hate seeing one get sent to the emergency room... I might have to step in. I don't think these two realize they're not gladiators."

"Why do you do all this?" Asked Maximilian. "What reasons do you have for participating in this program, and who is it that you're fighting and fighting for?" This was surprising to hear, especially from one who had never shown himself to be inquisitive.

Alice had to ponder his question for a moment. "You know, I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before," She said. "Which is a bit strange, right? You'd think when people hear me tell them all about ghosts and demons they'd want to know more about why the dead come back and cause problems, or at the very least why it affects them. I guess none of them really care, because they all just found out that they're literally one in a million, and they're important, and that there's a place made just for them where they're needed. When they asked me to join, I felt the same way. I didn't even stop to think about how much of an impact on my life it would make." The senior paused, and realized it was still much more difficult for her to speak to the club members one-on-one than it was to tell a group about a mission that would probably get them killed. "Honestly, in terms of the full picture I know about as much as you do. But I think we both realized during the last mission that there's something much bigger than mischievous spirits at work here."

"I'm sorry, I wish I had a better answer for you." She said somberly, but her tone changed as she grinned and raised an eyebrow at Maximilian. "What about you? You hang around here but you never do anything. Every time we're training or sparring, somehow you manage to weasel your way out of it. You never seem to enjoy anything. I don't mean to pry, it's just that I don't understand why you would even want to wake up in the morning when you make your life like that. No offense, I mean, there's going to be times where we place our lives in each other's hands. It kinda hurts your team performance to not know anything about the people you depend on."

((I'm assuming control of the exercise that I gave my group otherwise nothing is going to get done. Admonish me later if you have to Kiki.))

The spear struck and a dull clang of metal was heard. Adi saw that junior Rickheight had aimed for the bladed part of his weapon. Having willed his weapon to not move if struck, it would be dangerous otherwise, the result was a small nick in the blade where the spear tip had parted the metal. The blow was light and it could probably cut cleanly through with the right amount of force. Or maybe it would not have, Adi had ensured his karambit was dull. Who was to say which was sharper, his armament or the junior's spear?

"You've managed to chip my blade, that's never happened before. Interesting, well move on to Li and junior Douglas, and then reconvene to discuss our findings."

((Yes, you two need to describe what happen they take a swing at your stuff.))

The fireball had been successful in deterring the tiger’s attack, and the flames seemed to have wounded it sufficiently to keep it out of the fight for a while. However, before August could get back up, Lotus took advantage of his distraction to approach from the other side. With a swift kick she sent his lighter flying across the room, out of reach. She was intent on avenging the animal’s pain, and with a cry of “You hurt Dot!”, unleashed a barrage of kicks on the unfortunate boy.

August raised his arms to protect his face and payed the priced with a particularly nasty blow his right hand. The collision of shoe and bone produced a sickening crack, leaving the freshman’s annular finger bent at a bizarre angle. August rolled away from the girl, clutching his mangled digit. With an angry yell of “Ad amar” he forced himself to a standing position, the summoned rapier appearing in his outstretched left arm. Breathing heavily, eyes squinted in pain, he spat;
“That hurt, you little vermin! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t run you through right now.”

For a while Phora was distracted by an... interesting... conversation about what kind of blood tasted best. Without chiming in, Tsubaki though to herself that human blood, while nasty, was better than grasshoppers. And she would know.

Then without warning Gregory and Fiona dashed towards each other as Phora dashed at her. Seeing as she had already readied herself to go on the offensive Tsubaki didn't go to protect the other two, instead once again drawing a circle filled with a glowing sigil. It seemed Phora didn't remember things very long, or she would know charging Tsubaki was a bad idea.

"Ligure, bind my foes!" was the command that was issued this time, as Tsubaki thrusted her hand upon the writing to activate it. The reaction didn't take long as four heavy-duty chains lashed out at the fairy, like a dieing man grasping for water.

Lotus hurt the crack and was shocked that she was kicking that hard. She calmed down lng enough for the boy to stand up and ask a question.
"Well now you know how Dot feels. And you shouldn't attack my becuase i don't have a sword on me." She stated hoping his sense of honor would revent him from attacking. "Plus a broken bone is nothing compared to a burned leg." she added pointing to Dot but she still was ready if he decided to swing. "Now let's call it a draw, Before someone really gets hurt." Hoping agian to appeal to his sense of honor.
She began to watch Dot as Dot began to move between Lotus and August. Her burned side facing August.

A first for Adi was a first for Li. He never seen any sort of damage to Adi's blade happen before, so what he saw was quite shocking. Impressed, Li walked forward with the next exercise for the makeshift weapon. He grabbed out a sheet of paper from his backpack. Sending the flow through it, it reinforced the simple sheet of paper to be as strong as a sheet of iron against a spiritual attack while retaining it's weight. To a regular weapon, it would just get cut like a normal sheet of paper.

"Alright, take a stab at this," Li said while throwing it in front of the junior, "No pun intended," he said while it drifted downwards like any other piece of paper. When the spear struck it, it didn't cut through it all the way, but it effectively warped the shape of the sheet. The paper looked as if it was folded by hand when it hit the ground.

"Good job," Li told the three while turning his head towards Logan.

________________________________________________________

The massive fireball really got Dom's attention. He was in such awe, he almost wanted to get up immediately and talk to this pyromancer. The only thing stopping him was the giant tiger and the enraged girl. The show got even better when the boy summoned a weapon out of thing air. When the fight seemed to have ended, Dom got up and walked towards the boy.

"You know, I got told that you should never play with fire because if you do, you're going to get burned," he said trying to start a conversation.

"You needn't justify your questioning." Maximilian replied dully as Alice began her counter-interrogation. "I guess I'm just not much of a fighter, or for fighting, that's all. Let me ask you, these powers-" pausing for a brief moment to take a quick glance across the room a small smirk graced the boy's face for a split second before he continued. "I view them as a science, rather than magic. Looking about you it would seem mad to call any of this science, but something simply cannot come from nothing. Everything has a source, a trade off, it's a basis of chemistry and physics." Allowing his hand to stretch out far in front of him Maximilian stared deeply towards the back of his hand. "Water, for example... I can't make water, but water exists in places where I can control it: Lakes, oceans, the air, even the human body. Did you know Alice that the human body, at around our age, contains more water than an adult's body? Almost 68% of your body is water, water that could be flash boiled or frozen at a molecular level. It would be painful... It would kill instantly but the pain would be unimaginable during those split seconds of life." Maximilian's voice carried an eerie,sinister tone throughout his speech, though once he had stopped a bit of life jumped back into his voice. "What about your power, am I wrong to assume that there's a science behind this all? Is there something that you must pay to summon your 'familiar' over there?" Maximilian seemed incredibly interested in Alice's view of not only her own abilities but the others as well. What truly interested him the most was how much she actually knew about them. For instance, how they developed or the limits of each power.

Logan watched as Jonathan tested the new spear on a variety of objects. Each reacted strangely to the weapon, though he couldn't quite divine what that meant. Curious as ever, the young Scot summoned his sword and approached Rickheight.
"Alright, give this a swing." He said, holding the claymore horizontally. The junior brought the spear down upon the blade, causing it to bounce off with a resounding clang. The force of the blow caused Logan to drop the sword, and it disappeared through the floor. At first, it seemed completely normal. Upon further consideration, however, a regular spear would simply have passed through Logan's ethereal armaments.
"Well, that was conclusive." He said. "I'd say that spear definitely has some spiritual properties."

This was half expected, which lately he had been used to. Each of the weapons had been affected by Johnny's spear. Though, if he tried hard enough he'd might have been able to do some more serious damage. His first response was to break out into some ridiculous dance, gleefully. But he didn't. He couldn't. He wiped his forehead, even though no sweat was there, and said, "Honestly, that worked out better than I imagined." He had a feeling if Carter, Evelyn, or anyone else didn't use their abilities on whatever makeshift item or weapon he made during battle, it wouldn't be useful on anything spiritual, besides those weak against iron.