Eld was beginning to discover that whatever state he was in was not very stable. The sudden power he'd accessed seemed to fluctuate wildly; sometimes his attacks were brutal, but his shoulder charge had not fazed Toushikyo in the slightest...well, there was perhaps a brief moment of hesitation, but he certainly didn't seem harmed by it.

And then he was being flung through the air, towards the treeline. If he'd been thrown at the tower he probably would have resisted, but this was better. He'd be able to fight with less worries if they were in the forest as opposed to the middle of town.

With the aid of Qi he turned gracefully in air, landing on his feet and skidding back across the ice and snow, before springing backwards of his own accord into the forest. He was certain Toushikyo would follow him; he was entirely focused on Eld now, too much to decide to harass the villagers simply because he was out of sight.

It wasn't even two seconds after Eld steadied himself that Toushikyo arrived. To Etsu Hikane, who had just managed to reach them, Toushikyo had moved like a flash. To Eldridge Tsukimono, who moved at the same relative speed as Toushikyo, the Memory moved as fast as anyone else. He darted into tiny clearing in which Eld had landed, one far too small to hold any sort of fight between he and Toushikyo.

Not once did Toushikyo actually stop moving. It was as if Eld was his target, and he would pursue him relentlessly until the target had been killed. He entered the clearing, and without a second of hesitation, rushed at Eld again. He struck at him with both hands upon the hilt of his blade, a strong strike that might force Eld to reel back into the woods a bit further.

Back at the tree line, Etsu had little plans on simply letting Toushikyo and Eld go like that. She saw the leaves, the grass, and the weeds still rustling, and followed the direction they provided her. The cloaked man she seemed to ultimately ignore followed behind her.

Toushikyo did not let up, catching up to him even as he still receded into the forest. With no way to move enough to dodge the attack while in air, he was forced to block it, and the force of it sent him back even further into the forest.

Etsu's distant presence went largely unnoticed; with all the Qi he had used, there was too much interference for him to get a clear sense of her with her powers gone.

While all Eld could really do was avoid trees and do his best to prepare for the next attack, he wasn't worried; his opponent would expend far more energy catching up to him than he would defending himself. If he kept this pace up, he would end up winded and give him the perfect chance to mount a counterattack.

Minutes passed-- though they felt more like hours, perhaps even days, to the two fighters involved. They fought harshly and brutally, and given their temporary ability to withstand injury, fought with devastating killing blows, either to disable the other or-- in the case of Toushikyo of Terra --with full intentions of murdering the other.

As they paid little attention to the weight of their surroundings, only focused upon each other and the location of obstacles around them, neither of them anticipated exactly how far they'd gone, or how iconic of a situation they had inadvertently fought themselves into.

Eld would be the first one out of the forest, kicked clean out and thrown back, across the partly frozen sands, and into the water.

They'd reached the lake.

Toushikyo was much slower in leaving the tree-line. He was methodical in his approach, perhaps intimidatingly so. Despite injuries sustained, he carried his blade by his side and walked with the confidence of a man who could feel no pain. He passed the sand, left prints in the snow, and placed his foot upon the water that barely lapped upon the shore.

The freeze began instantly. It started from the shore, at Toushikyo's feet, and spread across the entirety of the lake, webbing across the surface and looming deep-- it would freeze the lake in a matter of seconds, leaving Eld precious little time to get himself out of the water before a suffering a serious risk to his health. This mattered little to Toushikyo, however. Freezing Eld to death-- or even freezing the lake --was not his intent. It was merely a natural reaction . . .

He'd stop walking near the middle of the soon frozen lake, where he would stand still and survey his surroundings. Survey, and take in the familiarity of it all . . .

Their energy was expended; all the charge Toushikyo had built up was gone, and the same circumstances applied for Eld's. There were still strong differences between them, though:

Firstly, Toushikyo was a lot worse for the wear than Eld. He was slightly more damaged than Eld; he was bleeding across his chest, from his forehead, and at his left hip. Eld, on the other hand, had only a few select cuts on him, and only one of them was all that bad: a deep gash from his hip to his knee, one that looked less like a wound from a blade and more like complications from a bad fall. It impeded his movements by a bit, though it wasn't too terrible; he simply had a hard time dodging.

Secondly, Eld and Toushikyo were both set back upon their natural abilities. Without powers, Toushikyo was still the better of the two. He just so happened to be a bit more injured that Eld, which directly impaired his abilities-- once again making them equal . . .

Eld exited the forest rapidly, blown back with a enough force that he skipped halfway across the lake before finally sinking below its surface. Memories, hazy and flickering, assailed his mind as he swam back up. Memories of a man and woman at this lake, a large fight, tension and betrayal, sadness and regret...

Even as he gasped for air at the top of the lake, a new danger approached: ice approached in a frozen wave spreading across the water's surface--and he suspected below as well. If he did not hurry, he'd be frozen solid.

It was too far to swim to shore, though; he'd never make it that way. So with the last of his power he launched himself out of the water to slam unceremoniously against the beach. The feeling of strength and the confidence it brought both left him, his unknown to him the eye that had turned golden faded back to its normal violet state.

He did not want to get up. Without that otherworldly energy, he felt the full fatigue of the battle thus far. It seemed unreal to him, as though up to this point it was all a dream. Sleep...sleep would be nice right now.

But he couldn't. Though his body screamed in protest, from the aches of battles and cold that was even now freezing his soaked body, he stood up, leaning heavily on the scythe to do so. A quick check confirmed that Kageko was still out of commission. There would be no easy recovery this time, but it didn't matter. He had a promise to keep.

And so with what strength could still muster he set foot upon the now frozen lake, his hair hanging down in icicles rather than locks, his entire body shivering as it fought the frost seeking to spread across his skin.

"This is where you killed them," Toushikyo declared outright.

It seemed that there'd been a bit more power in his voice as time-- and injuries --crept on. He attained controllable pitch which was, ironically, uncontrolled and unnoticed by the both of them. What he had noticed, however, were the flickers of mental static he experienced each time he took injury. But now was neither the time nor the place to address that issue.

It mattered little to him, anyways.

"It will be a fitting place for you to die."

And with this, he made his move again. Eld was slowed, even if only temporarily, but Toushikyo was not. His wounds reduced the speed at which he could act, but without the (capability to) care to address his pains, he was loath to regard them with disdain or distress. He trudged up the lake, now frozen solid from surface to six feet below them, with full intentions of fatally damaging Eld. He wished to make it fast, now that they were both reduced to this.

And so, with his blade in both of his hands, he attempted to charge Eld, and half-limping the whole way, he'd try to thrust his blade into the boy's gut at the first opportunity of proximity . . .

"He left me no choice then, just as you leave me no choice now." Notably, he only admitted to killing Oboreru. He might have felt responsible for Akizetsumei, but that was a far cry from thinking he was the one who killed her.

Toushikyo may have been fast, but Eld still had the advantage of reach. He swung the scythe in a wide horizontal arc, one that would cut deep into his opponent's side if he continued his charge.

He was sick and tired of being attacked and then blamed for what happened. His life as of late seemed like nothing more than a string of assailants that threatened either him personally, the people he cared about, or all of Hillcrest. It was looking more and more like it wouldn't stop until everyone who wished him ill either died or was put in prison.

And that was turning out to be far more people than he'd ever dreamed possible.

The Memory did not cease his charge, though he was a little slower at this point than Eld gave him credit for. Eld was about ready to take the man's hand off rather than impale him in the side, and Toushikyo swung his blade up against Eld's to stop it. It was a poor angle, though, and he already had a poor grip on his weapon. Rather than successfully blocking Eld's strike, he parried it-- and in the process, lost his blade. It snapped out of his hands, sending a shrill pain up his arms--

--and clattered harmlessly against the surface of the frozen lake.

But that wasn't going to stop him. He'd waste absolutely no time in snapping his hand to the pole of the Dusk Remnant and-- with his grip solid upon Eld's weapon --kick Eld in the stomach and pull in tandem. If successful, he'd rip the weapon away from Eld, but rather than what Eld might expect, that Toushikyo would use it against him, the Memory would instead discard it in light of the opportunity to slam his forehead against Eld's.

Toushikyo was barely, if at all, focused upon the Dusk Remnant anymore. His primary goal had become the murder of Eldridge Tsukimono with his bare hands, and all other things would have to wait.

It was illogical and inefficient in every way, but people often had a habit of mindlessly discarding efficiency and rationality in the presence of heightened--

--static--

In his weakened state, and with the scythe icy as it was from the cold, Eld could not maintain his grip on it. He stumbled forward as it was tossed away, right into his opponent's headbutt.

He staggered back, nearly losing his footing on the ice, but somehow managed to stay on his feet. Through his bangs and some blood he glared at Toushikyo. But unless he had any skill in martial arts, it was a mistake to resort to fisticuffs against Eldridge Tsukimono.

Not that he had been trained in any kind of martial art himself; but if his opponent hadn't either, than the battle came down to a contest of guts--and that was one contest Eld would not lose.

He'd been trained by the best, after all.

The simple act of head-butting Eld was a functional self-injury on Toushikyo's part. Eld was disoriented, but so was he. His perception was scrambled, and there was a strange sensation in his gut. Or was it his chest? Somewhere on the left side of his chest, nearest the middle of his body . . .



He shook it off and gathered his bearings as quickly as he could. He wound up on par with Eld, recoiling from the blow at the pacing as his enemy.

Toushikyo was aggressive. He wasted absolutely no time in jumping back into the fight. He didn't pace around Eld, didn't leave Eld the chance to attack, didn't even try to bait Eld into a counterattack. Instead, he dashed forward, threw all his weight ahead of him, and tried to throw a jab into Eld's jaw-- something he'd follow up with a left hook, provided he landed the first blow.

There were times when strategy was of utmost importance, when every movement and ever decision, no matter how minor, needed to be efficient to a single end: inflict as much damage as possible to the opponent while taking as little damage as possible oneself.

This was not one of those times. This was a fight where damage could no longer be avoided, and it was more a matter of making sure the opponent hit the ground before one did oneself.

Rather than try to avoid or block the assault, which would have likely been futile in his current condition, Eld charged headlong into it, throwing a punch of his own into Toushikyo's jaw, connecting at the same time as his own punch.

Eld struck Toushikyo in the jaw just as Toushikyo got Eld square in the forehead. In a flash, Toushikyo experienced an overwhelming sensation, one that hastily overtook his perception and filled his mind, if only briefly, with white lights, static, and memories.

Static--
Akizetsumei and Oboreru were afraid
Static--
But . . .
Static--
. . . Lynavleder was not.

The flash of images occupied his mind and caused an odd sensation to build up somewhere in his chest, as if his heart just skipped a beat-- then it fell. Dropped somewhere down into the pits of his stomach and made it absolutely impossible to concentrate on Eld or his circumstances entirely.

Toushikyo stumbled back, hand on his jaw. He was dizzy and had difficulty maintaining his footing. Eld had temporarily stunned the man, though not through means that was at all intentional . . .

Eld could not know what it truly was that stunned Toushikyo; all he knew is that when he recovered from the man's punch (spitting out a bit of blood as he did) he saw that his opponent was still reeling, leaving him completely open.

If there were any level of tactics still in play in the fight, he might have thought it was being lured in by a ploy, but there was nothing of the sort right now. So he charged in as quickly as his weary body could manage to throw a haymaker at Toushikyo's unguarded face, to knock him off his feet and--hopefully--knock him out entirely.

Stunned already, Toushikyo was struck in the face with a powerful haymaker, throwing him from his feet and sending him crashing to the frozen lake-- back of his head first, landing upon which sent out a loud and audible crack, followed, in short, by Toushikyo merely laying still.



He was breathing, though. That much was clear. His heart was still beating, too. Toushikyo's eyes were shut, however, and with his head lulled to the side, his lips were parted from a lazed hanging of his jaw. Atop his previous injuries, he now had a bleeding lip and a black ring around his left eye. The blood from his fractured lip was brown and frozen to his skin, however, likely frozen merely seconds after it was let.

There was no clear distinction whether Toushikyo was still conscious or not. He may as well have been, though. He hadn't budged a centimeter even after a whole ten seconds, after all. Toushikyo's body was here, but his mind-- if only for the moment --was not.

It was somewhere else, looking back on the past . . .

For a little bit Eld simply stared, catching his breath. Toushikyo wasn't moving, but he wasn't dead. And the blizzard wasn't stopping. Would he need to kill him before it did, or was it too late to stop now? At what point did something like this stop being supernatural and started being naturally driven?

Realizing that if it came to it, he'd be hard pressed to kill anyone in his current condition, he looked around for Kageko. Unfortunately, visibility wasn't great...it was probably buried in snow by now.

Damn it, I've got to end this somehow...or everyone...