Eld frowned--he'd thought he put more power into it than that. He still had difficulty controlling his Qi, though, despite the lessons Etsu gave him, making the power of his attacks vary wildly, often based on his mood. Unfortunately, of all the things he could do, that was his only real long-range option, and he was reluctant to get close unless he knew he could finish the fight in one blow.

The daggers aimed at him were easily avoided; he could see where they'd hit, knew just how to move to avoid them. Such was the power granted to him by Kageko. But he was more worried about Etsu, so he extended his hand sideways and sent another Qi blast, knocking as many off course as he could.

Before he made his next move, though, he wanted to know that Etsu was alright...

Unfortunately for Eld, they had all been launched in twos-- one to Eld and one to Etsu, simultaneously, followed by the next, the next, and the last. By the time Eld evaded his batch of four, those shot at Etsu had already either hit their mark or been evaded.

However, Eld didn't have much to worry about. Etsu slammed her left arm down, sending her naginata up at the right moment, impacting blade first against the first launched shard. It exploded on impact, throwing shards in all directions-- behind her blade, that is. Immediately, her naginata was leveled with the ground, only to be lifted quickly from the back end and arced up so that it almost stood as some sort of diagonal link between her body and the ground, a link for the next shard to deflect against. The third impacted against the polearm as she, still holding the blade into the ground, stepped to the left, and then still walking without moving her blade, she walked a fourth of a circle. The final shard deflected off of her polearm, and was thrown back, way back behind her, inevitably striking the ground and breaking into hundreds of shards.

Etsu may have been without her powers, but one wouldn't need to be too concerned about her. She had her weapon of choice. Unless she lost it, she possessed a near perfect defense . . .

Toushikyo stood up straight. He didn't attack again, at least not yet. He seemed to be concentrating, however. On what, no one could be sure, really . . .

Eld hadn't been able to react quick enough to help Etsu, but as it turned out she didn't need it. He was impressed; with Kageko's help he might be able to do it, but he doubted he could deflect more than one on his own. And yet she made it look almost effortless...

But alas he didn't have time to admire her. Toushikyo was focusing, preparing for something, and Eld didn't intend to let him have time. He dashed forward a few feet, getting closer but not yet so close the cold was unbearable, and fired off a Qi blast. And then another. And then another.

And so he would continue, slowly walking forward, intending to not give his opponent the time to concentrate for anything. He may have lacked skill with his Qi, but what did he have was a huge pool of it to draw on. Unless he ended up doing something wild, it was unlikely he'd run out any time in the foreseeable future.

At first, it would appear unclear if Toushikyo had really finished what he was concentrating on or not, by the time Eld took action against him. But immediately thereafter . . .

There was a light. It was brief; a flash of light that focused just in front of Toushikyo's body-- a flash which boasted little strength, however. It was only weak byproduct of what really happened. Because there remained light upon their battlefield, there was light to reflect-- and anything that could reflect light, would. After the first shot, it seemed Toushikyo took no damage. He wasn't even thrown off of his feet.

"You threw me off yesterday, Tsukimono," Toushikyo announced, "Your wind-- I thought it was like that of Akizets. But I was wrong. Yours is much weaker."

And again-- and again, and each time, a brief shimmer of faint light glinted, as if weakly reflecting off of hundreds of surfaces at once. And still, Toushikyo stood unabated. Indeed, his preparations were completely-- and just in time.

"Against you, even this will suffice," Toushikyo held out his hands, displaying the shimmering crystals of ice darting around him.

Before, they seemed invisible, and briefly, while the sun peeked out from behind the clouds for a single single second, there were hundreds to thousands of reflections surrounding Toushikyo-- reflections so small they'd otherwise have gone unseen.

"I doubted this until your first strike today. Comparatively, your wind is weak."

Eld was prepared to pound his opponent with repeated blasts, but he was a second too late--ice shards now floated all around him, making approaching anywhere near him dangerous now. He backed off again, planning to wait.

He almost had to pause in disbelief at Toushikyo's words, though. "...Wind?" It was indeed what it probably looked like, now that he thought about it, but...it was so different from dealing with the people who knew exactly who and what he was.

"You really have no idea what you're dealing with, do you?" he asked softly, almost...pityingly.

"Perhaps not," Toushikyo lowered his voice disdainfully, "But the effect remains the same. Whatever it is you do, Tsukimono . . ."

Toushikyo charged again. Truth be told, the man had a certain degree of speed to him. He was faster than most men, much faster, but not as fast as he was skilled with ice. Cold came quick-- but not as quick as, say, wind. There were much quicker elements out there, but Toushikyo's physical speed was still significant enough to merit concern.

He'd close the distance between them quickly, raising the scythe over his head once again as he did. Breaking the distance was all that mattered, really. He just had to get close-- close enough to fight him in melee combat, which at current became Eld's only option, really. Without the ability to actually hit him with shots of Qi, there were no other alternatives left.

"It is futile!" Toushikyo shouted at last, as he again brought his scythe down towards Eldridge Tsukimono-- or the ground, whichever hit first.

Much of what he did with Qi was experimental; the only thing that came naturally to him were the blasts, and mimicking a few minor things he'd seen Etsu do. Otherwise he simply had to try something that seemed reasonable and hoped it work.

In this case, rather than try to let it loose in a blast, as Toushikyo approached he tried to envelope himself with it like a blanket. He couldn't produce flames like Etsu, but perhaps he could still ward off the worst of the cold with it. Just in case, he grit his teeth in preparation, knowing his only choice if it didn't work was to just withstand it.

Again, he easily avoided the blow, but this time with a sidestep, and as he did so he brought down his blade...not on Toushikyo himself, but on his extended weapon. It was nothing more than a beat-up farming scythe, and the cold would make it brittle and easy to break.

As part of the same motion, he extended a single foot in a side kick to the young man's gut--but if it connected, he'd find that Eld kicked with far, far more force than someone of his size should have been capable of...

The scythe hit the ground, tip of the blade first-- and almost a fraction of a second later, Eld's foot hit Toushikyo's gut. Letting out a grunt of pain, he collapsed to one knee, having to steady himself with one hand upon the ground, or else he would have risked falling. That was going to have to be avoided in the future. He wasn't sure how many of those he could take before he would be no longer fit for battle.

But tactically, it should not have mattered. Even though the wooden pole of his temporary weapon was shattered, even though he lost that weapon entirely, as far as its original purpose was concerned, his tactic remained sound. Eld had been too busy kicking Toushikyo in the gut. Likely, he wouldn't notice, or perhaps simply wouldn't have the opportunity of time, to evade the splash incited by the tip of the sickle blade meeting the ground: a splash of ice, splintering quickly in all directly, like tendrils, jagged tendrils that reached out in an instant, a fraction of a second . . .

Etsu had to jump back from this. Already, she was shivering. Being close to any instance of ice made her feel like wanting to die, or at least close to it. Unconsciously, she backed away, one foot after the other, for several paces on end . . .

Just as he kicked Toushikyo, Eld felt the pain in his ankle, things piercing, biting into his skin. It was only through sheer luck it didn't get both legs, with his other raised for the kick, but it also meant a temporary loss of balance. He stumbled backwards, managing to use the scythe to catch himself and just barely prevent toppling over.

Injuring a leg was not a good thing; even if the wounds weren't deep, it would reduce his mobility. If it weren't for Kageko it would probably mean his loss, but being able to see most attacks long before they struck would help make up for the disadvantage.

He couldn't afford to be merciful any longer, and part of him hadn't wanted to to begin with. Recovering as quickly as he could, he took a step forward and swung, an upward swing with his blade attempting to cut deep into the front of his chest and neck. His leg rebelled, but he forced himself to ignore the pain--but the pain was also causing his impromptu heat field to fail, and now he was getting cold again...

Once Eld started towards him again, Toushikyo reared back, throwing himself back upon his bottom as the only way to avoid the oncoming strike and take no damage in the process. It also set himself up for something nice. Something Eld was unlikely to appreciate.

Eld was before him, very close in proximity, close enough that he'd have quite the trouble avoiding a wide point blank attack. A problem he would be faced with immediately following his missed attack. The only prompt for the first step was light.

Another reflection, brief again, but in a wide air. Thousands of small ice crystals collected altogether at once, all set before Toushikyo, all collected according to his plan: a thick sheet of ice pieced together before him, a veritable wall set right in front of him, blocking Eld from Toushikyo entirely. And that was the ultimate problem Eld would face. If he didn't recall his arm and blade in time, at least one of his arms, and part of his scythe, would be frozen in place, within the two inch thick wall of ice . . .

Toushikyo was faster than he anticipated, and dove back just in the nick of time, causing his swing to meet only empty air. Or...not quite. He pulled back just moments too late; one of the ends of the scythe was stuck in the ice, just centimeters from where he was holding it.

For all intents and purposes this should have either effectively disarmed him, or immobilized him if he refused to let go of his weapon. (Which, given that it was also someone important to him, wasn't out of the question.) However, he intended to show his opponent that it was a mistake to write off his abilities as weak...

Rearing his free hand back, he wrapped it in the end of his sleeve and sent it flying forward. Ordinarily this would have been a good way to break his hand, but this punch was far more powerful than he should have been capable of...more than any human should have at all. It was extremely likely it would completely shatter the two inches of ice.

He didn't stop there, though--immediately after his impact, he let lose another Qi blast, which would likely most of the shards of ice flying right at Toushikyo...

Eld's strength was impressive, really. What should have normally broke a man's arm by attempting, he did as if it were nothing at all. He possessed such great physical strengths-- but how far could that go? He was, without a doubt, stronger than Toushikyo, but how much would that matter in the end?

Shards-- a lot of them, and all large. The chunks boasted enough weight to break bones on impact, if they hit at the right speed. There weren't enough chunks broken up for them to become smaller and easier to take. If Eld really managed to get them all on Toushikyo, the battle would have been won in an instant.

But were those shards really flying at . . . Toushikyo?

On the contrary, Eld would find them aimed straight at him-- each piece of the shattered ice wall, launched forward straight for Eldridge Tsukimono's body.

Almost as if it was what he had planned all along . . .

Toushikyo had indeed planned it out, but this time Eld was one step ahead. The Qi blast he'd unleashed, rather than knocking back the shards of ice, pushed them to the side as they tried to continue moving forward. Seeing his chance, Eld darted forward through the middle as they sailed past him on either side.

And then he was through, and again there was no barrier between his opponent and him, and this time his opponent was laying prone. He couldn't afford to let this go on any longer; the cold was seriously starting to affect him, his teeth were chattering, and it was only sheer willpower that kept him fighting in the temperatures that emanated from Toushikyo.

So he charged forward, bringing the blade about to stab him through the chest. He wasn't specifically trying to be lethal, but nor was specifically avoiding a fatal strike. He needed to finish this, and whether or not Toushikyo survived was of little concern to him...

Eld charged. Toushikyo, on the ground, could do little to protect himself. Even if he attacked Eld in mid charge, intercepting him wouldn't have done anything, he'd still get in and--

Thought went by too slow. All Toushikyo could do was try to move to the left, maybe roll or . . . something, anything to evade a killing blow. He didn't quite manage avoiding a blow altogether, but close enough. Eld's blade sunk into his right shoulder, stopping Toushikyo in an instant. For a moment, he dumbfounded-- and then . . .

"Gnn--" Toushikyo winced loudly, before shouting out, "Aggghh!!"

The battle was over. Eld had won. Instantly, Eld would feel the temperature decrease lessen. Toushikyo was still alive, of course-- it wasn't going to lessen completely, but the radius of the cold was certainly beginning to reduce. It was a dramatic reduction, too, occurring almost at the exact instant that Eld planted his blade into Toushikyo's shoulder. Even being near Toushikyo might become bearable . . .

The entire fight, Etsu had been unnerved. She wanted to help Eld, but against a foe like Toushikyo, there was very little she could do but protect herself. Now, though, the battle was over. He was in a much too compromising position to continue fighting. The man seemed intelligent enough to know what to give up, and even after a second, didn't try and fight back anymore. Etsu was able to relax a little. Eld was unharmed. He was unharmed, and he had defeated his foe. All was well. She could even relax a little, and join him--

"Your second loss in two days."

Even Eld would feel it. A powerful spiritual presence, not intimidating in how strong it was, because it may have been around Eld's own (which was formidable in of itself, but not as formidable as, say, Illorex). What might be intimidating was the fact that it was suddenly just there. It wasn't there before, and in an instant, it appeared.

Etsu felt it immediately, perhaps quicker than Eld would-- but that was because it was . . .

Behind me!

Immediately, she turned her whole body, swinging her naginata along with her turn, but it was cut short. She barely even got the chance to see what happened; only a muscular arm. Too muscular, maybe-- but chiseled. It looked like a statues. That was the last thought that went through her mind.

Etsu's unconscious body was held in the air by the back of the throat. Between his thumb and two fingers, he'd caught her by the nape of her neck and snapped with little difficulty. She was still breathing where she was, lifted four feet into the air. The naginata fell to the ground without any given resistance, and soon after, Etsu fell in a heap next to it. There wasn't any fighting it. The man was just too physically powerful. He could do that with just three fingers . . .

He was an imposing man, without a doubt. Perhaps the most imposing man that Eld himself might have ever seen-- which was saying something. He didn't need Illorex strong spiritual presence to intimidate someone. Just standing still would have. He stood at seven feet tall, a man of raw muscle, his body looking like a statue chiseled by expert hands. His skin was tanned dark, almost like he came from a completely different country, one never even heard of by Eld and Etsu-- and everyone here. He had short, dark hair, too, cut short enough to be inconsequential. He wore only a dark green muscle shirt and a pair of dark slacks, completely ignoring the necessity of shoes.

"Disappointing." He even had a powerful voice-- soft, quiet even, yet booming, unnaturally so, perhaps, like a bass deep enough to rattle a human being's ribcage from the inside out . . .

"Etsu!" Eld whirled around at the new Qi presence, just in time to see Etsu lifted up and then dropped to the ground, unconscious but alive. But even though she was alive, the sight of her being handled like that...it didn't matter who this newcomer was, he was joining Toushikyo on the ground.

He rushed forward, an unwise tactical move made only because he wanted, above all else, to place himself between the newcomer and Etsu. As that would bring him in range, he'd swing with the scythe as he did so, aiming not to seriously attack so much as drive the man away from Etsu.