Footsteps in the Snow

The result with the wooden scapegoat provided her with enough time as she anticipated, whilst she watched on as the samurai did her best to handle with the oaken adversary. The sorceress couldn’t help but shake her head in disappointment at Katsu’s words, clicking her tongue at the threat whilst the Staff of the Moon returned in a showering crystalline flash. Such harsh words, maybe she was finally getting to that anger underneath that cracking composure. The witch couldn’t help but retort with a laugh. ”I recall you were the one who requested this demonstration. Nay?” The samurai’s assumption behind her attacks were met with a calculated precision, as Celeste would bat away the ki orbs with a sharp whip of the staff, each of them combusting against the snow and trees on impact. "Oh! It's just so unfair!" Her ferocity could be witnessed in the swing, which told an underlying tale in the thinning of her patience.

”Your attack hurt me, nonetheless...my feelings at least.”

A scoff offered to interject Katsu’s notion to decapitation.

The sorceress partially lamented going so hard on the girl, but it was the only way for her to learn from her mistakes. Only the most valuable of lessons were gleamed and properly taught by a trial of fire. There was no living soul on this planet that would spare the samurai as many mercies were they to come for her life. Katsu needed to know this now before the proverbial embers of their struggles would quicken, and inevitably fan the flames of war. She may have resented Celeste for her behavior, even hated her for it, but the sorceress knew that a proper sword was forged in the hottest of infernos.

”I’ll humor you...for now.”

That was when there came a pulse from Celeste’s aura, a low but echoing chime resonating throughout the grove to reverberate off the icy cliffs. The thaumaturge would upturn both her palms while the staff proceeded to orbit her body once more; a confident smirk returned as she looked to both hands, while they each crackled to life with purple lightning. Red-amber would dart to meet scarlet beyond the violet light haze. ”By the accursed light be purged!” The sorceress would then make motion to throw each of the spells, the first like a baseball, the second in a roll as though she were making a bowl for a strike. Purple bolts would stream through the winds like they had before, racing one another for the ultimate determination on which would land its blow first.

PL: 25,000
- bats non-KP ki volley away.
- activates Otherworld Training
- casts Light Offensive || 嵐 Arashi: Jolt & Light Offensive || 嵐 Arashi: Jolt at Katsu!

• (10,000 pt damage + 10,000 pt damage incoming)

KP: 0/6 (-4)
MP: 3/6 (1+1)
HP: 0/250%
WC: 435

The samurai toppled over with a finalizing thud and a profound sizzle as the electricity crackled over her form once more, before finally vanishing to reveal the art of its work. Surprise too the sorceress for but a moment, as she cocked a brow out of curiosity in retort. Celeste momentarily raised a chin in triumph, a smirk to the falling snow as she would give the lightest of sighs. At last, this little scuffle of Katsu’s own design was finally at a close, at last she had made her point to a newfound friend. If you were willing to play with fire, it was best you were prepared for the chance of getting burned. Celeste’s growing temper underneath her layers of profound composure began to finally subside, no longer boiling and trickling to the surface. There came the calm to the storm in form of a slowed breath through the nostrils, a tug at the corner of her lips as she strode forward to stand over the fallen Ronin. Celeste observed in silence as the storm began to billow the features of the fallen warrior, taking into account how serene she appeared in her involuntary slumber.

The purple glow about her form would then gradually subside then cease.

”Thus does it end, but I thank you for playing.”

How else did she imagine this would end?

Surely, she must have known, or had some inkling of understanding of the predicament she had placed her well-being into. How quaint this result, and sure enough Celeste found the disappointment in it quite palpable, though it was an inevitable outcome that she had foreseen the moment young Ms. Donne had insisted on a demonstration. No matter, the sorceress had made her point, and if anything, a rather profound and lasting impression on the girl. It would be a while before she would be ready to try again, to test her mettle against her newest comrade, to weigh the mettle of her soul once more. Celeste would make certain that she did her best to nurture this budding sakura bloom, to see her grow into the most beautiful of flowers in a dying garden.

The sorceress would give a flippant wave of her hand, prompting the Staff of the Moon to hover parallel to the growing powder. It was time they got out of here, the storm would only continue to grow worse the longer they lingered, and Celeste would not run the risk of her newfound friend catching a cold. With a bit of effort, the blond would return the katana to its resting place in Katsu’s scabbard, then make to steady the girl’s unconscious body over the staff. As she sat upon the weapon like a broom once more, she gave a satisfied pat to the samurai’s back as they would ascend to the darkening stormfront. With a surge of speed, they would take off toward the nearest, and most convenient place Celeste knew to get her friend some help.

PL: 5000
- exit Celeste w/ Katsu
TWC: 5,228 over 10 posts