Illuminating Butterflies

It's been way too long. Noah stood upon the middle of a cemetary, arms folded neatly over his chest. He was issued a challenge today, and decided to come. It's been awhile since he fought against anyone. Noah's like a blade; settling down dulled him, and he grew to be quite peaceful a man. Compact gloves firmly enwrapped his hands, maintaining a tight, but comfortable hold. Extensions unfolding, his right arm extended, parallel to the floor of dry glass that cushioned his brawny anatomy. Wide optics, the color of caruscating sapphire, roamed the scene around him. It was practically dark at this time of night, save for the innumerable glowing butterflies that soared through the area. With the illumination provided by the butterflies, Noah saw a circle of thin trees around him. If one had a ruler and tossed it from one side of the arena to another, it'd be about thirty yards. But Noah paid little heed to the trees; he was mesmerized by the butterflies. Noah has an obsession with butterflies. How pretty.

He siphoned through his enigmatic thoughts, arm dropping gradually. Noah thought of his family. He rarely left them at such a time of night. If he's at home, he'd be sleeping, with his pleasing woman beside him. But something made him come tonight. Noah dusted invisible dust off of his physique, dark gloves sweeping over a typical black wife-beater shirt. He felt the cloth pressing in against his smooth flesh, and hip-hugging denims would cascade suavely down the length of his lower-body. His hand ascended, brushing tendrils of ruffled silver hair from his face. Then the hand descended, landing upon the hilt of his katana, Jikeidan'in. Tracing along the cunning designs upon the handle, muddy boots pushed downwards.

It's time.

These are… butterflies. Ah, I remember them.

Stepping lightly through the cemetery, a young man emerged from the darkness. The luminous insects fluttered about him, their light reflecting off the black leather binding his entire form and causing the red cloak flowing over his shoulders and back to shine with a tense radiance. In spite of himself, the man smiled, imagining that perhaps he looked quite stunning. Gloved hands smoothed disarrayed hair back from his forehead. Vanity had always been a flaw, though never one he acknowledged.

A butterfly swept low over his head; one hand swept up in the same instant. Fingers curled swiftly about it, forming a cage around the creature, careful not to crush the tender body. The hand lowered its prisoner, bringing it close to the face, illuminated the black satin blindfold that covered a vision long since destroyed.

“You know,” he murmured, addressing his foe even as he marched closer, stopping a short distance away. “Butterflies are nice and all, but I like baby foxes and kittens better.” He tossed the butterfly away and focused on Noah, his aura-sight perceiving him as a set of brightly colored strings among a backdrop of a colorfully woven tapestry. Each butterfly made the rainbow of his world all the more beautiful; he could perceive and feel light well enough. What a pleasant contrast… beauty in a place of a death.

His right hand rose and gripped the handle of a sword, one of two blades strapped to his back. His left was armored not by the dominating leather but by steel, spiking over his shoulder, running down his arm and curving into five talons over his knuckles. Simply by looking at them, they seemed to say that he was either compensating for something lacking or he thought they would be useful to cause some pain.

Raze of Storm cocked his head at Noah. He need say nothing. Ready?

Noah' s slender fingers flexed quickly, stretching out his gloves. He had a stolid countenance; his face was blank with a stoic composure. Since the day he settled down with a particular woman, more expressions flitted across his noble features. He laughed more, certainly. But a blade dulled is still a blade dulled, and in most cases, cannot be helped. But win or lose, he would go back home. At the very least, he'd be back home in the arms of his woman, with his children by his side.

Something flashed in Noah's depthless eyes when the personage capture a butterfly. His left hand snapped outwards, palm facing up. A butterfly with glowing blue wings perched upon his palm daintily, and Noah shook his palm, tossing the butterfly lightly off. If something is beautiful, let it go. If it misses you, it will come back. Noah felt the energy course through his frame at those brooding thoughts of his, and he stared at his opponent intrepidly, feeling the tiniest stir beneath and around him.

Go.

Noah drew Jikeidan'in from its sheath, and a faint ringing was heard as the mystical blade slid out of its home. The blade started its subtle suction of the mana energy in the surrounding territory, and Noah's fingers pressed down against the fine runes inscribed upon the hilt. The kinetic energy in the air, being manipulated by Noah's inherited prowess from his mother's side of the family, sped up. This would be barely noticable, of course, save for the slight rising of temperature.

The fight has begun.

In the same instant as his opponent’s sword was drawn, so did Raze release his. A sharp whistle cut a silver arc through the air as Illuminastra swept downward, its brilliant light mixing with the butterflies’ array of colors. The tip scraped the earth and the flat rotated, gleaming as the blade smoothly moved to lie languid at Raze’s side.

Not the most dramatic of poses, but then again, Raze was in no hurry to show off any extravagance, real or imaginary. He was focused more on Noah and, more importantly, Noah’s sword. The strings composing Raze’s sight were shivering, reacting strangely to the presence of such a magnificent katana. A few seemed even to vanish as time slid by. As the temperature rose, the brilliant strings changed color, shifting from a deep blue to a vibrant pink.

Raze hated pink.

All his heightened senses were brought to bear – hearing caught the sounds of breaths and the fluttering of tiny wings. Touch was teased as the butterflies scattered before him as his knees bent slightly in a ready stance. He breathed deep and tasted the air, flavored with the scent of cold stone and smelling of freshly placed granite. Physical sight was missed, but no longer a necessity.

A moment of silence passed before Raze took initiative, giving Noah sufficient time to prepare himself – for the sake of courtesy, one had to do at least that much. He was the host of this tea party anyway.

He lunged forward, a single stride only. Illuminastra flashed a blinding white as his body twisted downwards. His arm swept horizontally before him, sending the Aeonblade's edge running across the ground,. Strands of grass were severed. A broad gash formed across the earth. Golden cattails took shape and raced up the flat in blinding spirals. At the tip, they merged, flickering with power that was ruthlessly unleashed in a crescent blade spinning towards Noah to rip the man in half.

He left Noah to fend off the light. Even so, he did not remain entirely idle; Raze straightened himself again, his muscles taut as he brought the sword up, the flat facing and mocking Noah as one hand lightly curled over the jitte-like edge. Colorful threads flared around him, sloughing towards him as he calmly compressed and commanded his own power caged within his soul.

Noah paid little heed to the beauty of the sight before him. Jikeidan'in tingled eagerly beneath his fingers, and his grip tightened slightly with the constant torrent of power. Something stirred nearby. When Raze strode forward, Noah tapped into a separate prowess of his blade in preparation. The opponent's body twisted, and their blade edged itself across the ground. Noah timed it with slitted eyes, for the caruscating light agitated his eyesight, and two large chunks of tombstone before him were torn from the earth violently when Raze created some golden magnificience. The tombstones were manipulated by Noah, who tapped into Jikeidan'in's telekinesis, to hover before him firmly. The crescent blade would be blocked by the tombstones, and Noah stepped farther back then aside in case the chunks of tombstones flew at him afterwards from the impact.

He glanced to the uneasy butterflies that encircled the whole scene, and felt the continual flow of energy throughout. Beads of sweat rolled off of the side of Noah's face from the ascending heat, and he waited in silence.

Raze’s response to the failure of his attack was simple – he smiled. The corners of his lips slid up as the tombstones were shredded, sending jagged fragments flying through the air in a midst of rolling dust and silver smoke. It shot across the ground, swirling around his legs and embracing his body. Though he remained as focused and steadfast as ever, Raze couldn’t help but imagine he must look quite awesome. Basking in his own glory and congratulating himself on the pwnage he would wreck upon this pitiful fool, he delved deeper within himself.

He wasn’t vain. Just confident. Okay, maybe he was a little prideful… just a bit.

Cage One, unleashed.

Since the beginning of his arrival in the physical plane, in the lives of mortals and humans and lesser beings, Raze was known for the cold, black aura he radiated, one he never bothered to hide. It shifted and shuddered around him, grown stronger over the years and changing to a burning heat when he had touched Illuminastra. Now, he brought the power harnessed within it to his command.

His brows creased slightly, joined by a slight frown, accentuating the tortured lines of his face. The tails of the blindfold concealing his useless eyes flapped lightly in the wind, smacking against the red cloak flung backward by the backlash of power. Chips of stone clicked and rolled by as the dust settled, and still he did nothing. Only deep breaths disturbed the tranquility of his body, only he knew of his next plans as the darkness flowed through his veins and filled him with the intoxication of power.

Noah believes in humility. But then again, it could be from experience and age. He would be nearing the end of his twenties now. Noah tapped into the prowess he harnessed, first his pyrokinesis. He inherited this ability from his mother, and his father was a well-to-do psionic user.

The temperature around them rose sometime towards the beginning of the fight, but that's beyond the point. So many pretty butterflies surrounded Raze, in fact, that they were barely a half foot away from him. Noah manipulated the kinetic energy in the air by speeding them up, thus causing the molecules' movements to be faster. Fire sparked. The mass of butterflies that encircled Raze's image started to burn, and approximately five fireballs appeared in the air separate from the butterflies. Then there's the telekinesis. Using this, Noah was able to move the fireballs and flaming butterflies to fly directly at Raze.

They would come down like meteors upon his opponent from all directions, for there's quite a number of butterflies that surrounded Raze. Noah traded mass for velocity, increasing the speed of the butterflies movements, thus more difficult to evade. People kill people with ice bullets, mainly because of the incredible velocity; Noah'll kill someone with a fire bullet. He didn't care much for which part of Raze's body the butterflies were aimed at; the fireballs he focused more on, for they were much larger than the flaming butterflies. This, he traded in velocity for mass. Noah aimed at Raze's head, left arm, right arm, left leg, and right leg. It would add up. So the fireballs would be generally slower than the butterflies by about a second or two, this would land much more damage.

He placed the tip of Jikeidan'in upon the soil languidly.

Is it getting hot out here or… oh.

Before Raze could fully acknowledge the heat itself, he saw the movement. It looked like the plucked string of a violin, twanging and reverberating through his head, blending smoothly with the interwoven threads composing the world. Although the colors were not truly colors as often perceived physically, perhaps it could be described as pink turning to red, signifying a rise in temperature. The butterflies twisted in agony, and Raze saw their tiny auras fade and morph into dull non-life.

Well, that’s… mean.

If anything, Raze was known for his speed. Amplified by a reaction time that was instantaneous, honed by years of practice and forced learning, even butterflies from Hell couldn’t possibly match him.

Or could they?

A thin wall of darkness flickered into place around him, molding roughly to the contours of his body. The fireballs smacked against it, bursting into foul-smelling balls of smoke and tattered, blackened wings. One, however, penetrated through a weaker section. Its size was reduced to half as the surrounding shield held firm; the point was, it got through anyway.

Black leather peeled away as the fire seared through it, leaving an annoying red slash on the skin underneath. One word interrupted Raze’s concentrated thoughts as the pure, excruciating aggravation quivered up and down his tense muscles.

Goddammit. Noah had no idea that not only was this moot compared to what he had suffered not so long ago, this was also part of a scheme to fool Noah into thinking he was weaker and less prepared than he really was.

Raze began to hum softly to himself, a favored way of keeping his concentration while avoiding total boredom. Cage Two, released. Fingers flexing, he began to spin Illuminastra in a spiraling, gleaming circle. It whistled at his side as it cut the air again and again. His gauntleted, left arm rose, one curved claw tapping impatiently at his blindfold. He tilted his head at Noah as the remains of the dead butterflies sprinkled the ground.

“Hey, you,” he called, just loud enough for Noah to hear. “Get serious. Because I’m counting. And you’d better get to it before I reach six.”

His feet shuffled lazily across the earth, kicking up a few wayward pebbles and loose dust.

Noah was getting pretty stressed out. It almost felt like his brain was overloading with heat, and heat rose to his cheeks. His eyes became a brighter shade of blue, and whilst his previous assault formed into existence, images flashed in his head. He barely saw a dark veil, but he could recognize it as a barrier of some sort. It impeded his fire, but one managed to get through, and land a feeble mark. However, Noah isn't satisfied.

Coming back into reality, Noah plucked up Jikeidan'in to the air. Those images came from Noah's paradigm strings prowess, which he inherited from his mother, Camile, who got it from Noah's father, Muido Shinoji. When under stress, or even at sponetaneous moments, the user could see into the future briefly, but adequately. Years ago, when he first tapped into this capability, he's been practicing and using it, manipulating his mind by stressing himself until he sees those pretty images. .. Sometimes not so pretty.

Noah swiped cleanly across the air the second the veil would appear, seemingly at first to aim at nothing. A wave of mana tore through the air; it's not an attack at Raze, but more like his defense. The energy, charged up since Noah first came to this cemetary, would impact and negate Raze's shield, like two equal forces coming together, and canceling out.

Upon canceling out Raze's shield, Noah has no idea if the opponent would foresee it. Unless the guy has some sort of mind-reading powers, it's highly unlikely they would see Noah's paradigm strings at work. And upon canceling out the shield, would Raze have a defense upon the fireballs and butterflies that're comin' closer and closer so rapidly?