Disturbing the Peace (Private)

[Furore]

'An interesting contrast', the man muttered to himself looking up at the clear blue sky. And the man, Ghen, was absolutely correct. The clear sky looked perfect. It was in stark contrast with the ruins of a once beautiful meditation site Ghen now found himself occupying.

Ghen was lying on the roof of the remains of a small hut, a building now falling into decay. It was once a small meditation hut in times long past, but was now a rotting mass of hardwood with flecks of sky blue paint still visible every here and there. The hut was surrounded on one side by thick, sand filled water and on the other by a thick forest consisting of many dead trees.

The reason behind this tormented place?
Man. Or one man in particular. A man forgotten to the depths of time who wished for enlightenment. He'd found this place, at the time a paradise, and built a meditation hut right in it's heart. The troubles began when he decided to make a sandy shore for the small lake. The lake consumed the sand, and then some of the Earth around it. Not only did this turn the lake into a natural snare, it also poisoned the nearby forest which relied on the water of the lake for sustenance, not only killing the trees, but also sending any local wildlife elsewhere. Rocks from the eroded earth around the lake had also found their way into the salt trap now, adding to the lifeless appearance of the area.

Ghen sat up and then flicked his fringe out of his face, his unruly black hair shimmering in the sunlight. He slid onto the dry cracked earth beneath him, a smile on his unpredictable face. He was one who could appreciate this place for what it was, as well as it what it once was. Despite his appreciation of the scenery, he was here for one reason only. To sharpen his skills against a worthy opponent.

Ghen called Void to his right hand, the sword flickering with an aura of nothingness. He stood facing the woods, his back leaning lazily on the wall of the hut. He gazed at his sword. And his smile grew.

[Aerif]

Gabrielle had made her mind up about the mental state of the man who was leaning against the ruined hut. He was either insane or insanely confident in his skills. She observed as his smile continuously grew and how he seemed to be admiring the scenery and taking in every single little detail that happened to cross his eyes. She had to admit that he had an attractive way of doing it; it seemed casual though there was definitely depth to his observations.

As was traditional, she fired an arrow towards a nearby tree, to announce her presence. Though instead of the arrow hitting the tree and staying at rest, the bark of the tree split making an undesirable amount of noise and taking the professional effect away. She gave an audible sigh and within seconds was by the tree, in full view of the man.

Though her feet rested gently on the ground, she felt displeasure in the surroundings. There was heavy salt content in the ground and practically everything in the area was dead. It was to far away to tell but the lake seemed to also be filled with this salt, it would probably be as dense as a beach, which was more than likely to have been the cause of death for the whole area. As she calculated, she went into a sort of trance, she was no longer seeing with her eyes but instead with her mind, she could see clearly the aura of the man but at the same time, she couldn’t. All signs pointed to a vacuum of some description. It made no sense.

Suddenly she remembered that this aura had a cause, the man that stood before her, with a sword at hand. Even though he intrigued her to the point of irritation she still felt that formalities where an important part of first impressions.

“I am Gabrielle Coulter the 22nd. And who, pray tell are you?”

[Furore]

As Ghen waited patiently, he heard it. The sound of bark splitting not too far from where he stood. Ghen straightened up, looking at the tree in question. As Ghen noticed the arrow embedded within the tree, his dark gray pupils focused on a woman appearing beside it.

'I am Gabrielle Coulter the 22nd. And who, pray tell are you?' The woman asked, Ghen noticing possible irritation on her features.
'Who am I?' spoke Ghen aloud. 'There are those who call me Ghen... Ghen of the Darklit Void.' Ghen flicked his sword around a bit to loosen up his shoulder before starting to speak again.
'This is nothing personal you must know. There's a bit of a shortage of conflict right now...' Ghen sighed, his eyes dropping for a second. 'I really need the training.'

Ghen took a deep breath before stepping forwards a few steps, swinging his sword Void in a great circle above his head before holding it two handed in front of him. As some of his bandaging came loose from this movement he gazed directly into his opponent's eyes. They were a light blue. And struck Ghen as being rather odd for some reason. Ghen shook his head. He didn't wish to be distracted by such things.

'It's been a pleasure to have met you' started Ghen whilst making sure to maintain eye contact, 'I leave you with the first move. If you desire it of course.'

[Aerif]

Ghen was certainly more polite than Gabrielle first anticipated he would be, perhaps she was stereotyping the fact that he had longer hair than the average man meant he must be rebellious or anti-social. Certainly, that had been the majority of her experiences with longer-haired men. And she had met a lot.

Though despite the politeness, the man had undoubtedly asked her to attack him, it was an unusual request even if it was just to be a training experience. However everything about the man before her seemed odd. His aura seemed to be shapeless, unknown, full of a certain degree of chaotic matter (being chaotic purely because it was unidentifiable). Regardless, despite his awkward aura it still seemed appropriate to take up his offer, though she felt strange in doing it. After all, she was much more used to being firstly attacked.

The mansamune-inspired blade had been brought to the same level as her opponent’s weapon. Not just because it seemed fair, but because the full-length was impossible to naturally fight with. Though she had the peculiar feeling that it may be a length that would be later needed within the fight.

“I accept your offer, graciously of course, though you do put me in a bit of an unusual dilemma. I don’t suppose you could possibly tell me why your aura seems to be so unique? That is to say, I’ve never quite seen something like it.”

Whilst talking she attacked, not to seriously though she was aiming to hit him. She brought the mansamune swinging upwards towards the man’s chest, not taking time to realise whether the attack had been efficient, she then transferred hands, and attempted to take a stab at his right arm.

[Furore]

'I accept your offer, graciously of course, though you do put me in a bit of an unusual dilemma. I don’t suppose you could possibly tell me why your aura seems to be so unique? That is to say, I’ve never quite seen something like it.'

As his opponent spoke, Ghen noticed her sword slashing up to meet him. He smiled, stuck his own sword in the way (noticing slightly surprised that Gabrielle had more force behind the sword stroke than he would have thought), and replied, 'And it interests me greatly that you can see my aura. It is a rather curious trait...' Ghen pondered on the nature of her power for a second before continuing, 'My aura is that of the Void. I am... or was rather... an avatar of sorts.'

'I guess the best term now would be that I'm a Chaos Knight. A free agent promoting chaos in all it's forms.' Ghen chuckled as he finished, noting it wasn't the best way of describing himself. But then he was of the Void, and the Void couldn't be described accurately through any means of verbal communication. Ghen looked at his opponent whilst the swords were still together and with the same amount of curiousity she had seemed to show towards him, he asked, 'So what is the origin of your power? It's not often I come across one with the ability to read another's aura. It interests me rather greatly.'

Ghen flicked his his own sword up, whilst stepping back and then quickly tried for a rather rapid ballestra lunge, a move one didn't normally attempt with a 12 foot sword. Ghen figured it might catch his opponent off guard. Or at least inspire the fight Ghen needed to advance to the next level.

(OOC: A ballestra lunge is a fencing move where someone feint lunges and then really does in an attempt to put their opponent off balance. A standard tactic. =D)

[Aerif]

The approach that Ghen had taken seemed rather comical to watch, especially seeing as he was attempting it with a weapon that was actually taller than he was. It was a seemingly standard tactic, though Gabrielle had surprisingly never seen the move before. It took her off-guard and actually made her fall on her back, the full lunge passed over her and she could see an unusual suction around the blade.

In a single movement, she rolled backwards and ended up back on her feet, weapon drawn and eyes shining. The accuracy of the attack had given her heart a jump-start, she was more aware of her surroundings now and she felt more conscious of the power of Ghen.

“If you hadn’t already perceived it, I’m not quite what you expect me to be.”

Whilst talking she continuously slashed backwards and forwards, in an attempt to hit his chest. The movements where fast and would seem blurred to the naked eye.

“I’d rather not sound like a clichéd serial, however, I’m actually a member of the Angellus race. The true humanisation of a traditional angel. I guess you could say that my ability to see the aura of another is like a replacement to the sense of touch, unfortunately I’ve never felt the wind on my skin… However, that is not the matter at hand. Care to explain what a ‘promoter of chaos’ does? You certainly don’t seem unruly, in fact, I find you to be a pleasant man.”

Despite the niceties, the fighting was still continuing. She used her sword as a vaulting pole and used it to launch herself upwards, stretching her leg out she aimed carefully and attempted a Tae Kwon Do technique subtly named a ‘Flying Side Kick’ towards his chest.

[Furore]

As Ghen slashed for real, his opponent fell on her back and rolled backwards before quickly recovering, her weapon drawn.
'If you hadn’t already perceived it, I’m not quite what you expect me to be.' She said, whilst slashing backwards and forwards. Ghen jumped back with a smile, only slightly unnerved as the light gash from one of the slashes dripped a fine line off blood over some of his chest bandaging.

'I’d rather not sound like a clichéd serial, however, I’m actually a member of the Angellus race. The true humanisation of a traditional angel. I guess you could say that my ability to see the aura of another is like a replacement to the sense of touch, unfortunately I’ve never felt the wind on my skin… However, that is not the matter at hand. Care to explain what a ‘promoter of chaos’ does? You certainly don’t seem unruly, in fact, I find you to be a pleasant man.' Ghen's opponent continued as she vaulted using her sword towards Ghen.

Due to the speed of the kick, Ghen found himself jumping backwards, hoping the kick's impact would be lessoned if he did so. As the kick hit the right side of Ghen's chest he was glad he made that decision. It had still been a hard kick, but thankfully none of his bones felt broken. Ghen quickly felt his ribs just in case. He figured he'd just get some nasty bruising later...

Ghen jumped to the top of the ruined hut, a structure only slightly larger than himself, before continuing. 'A promoter of chaos promotes chaos. I simply strive for a world with as much chaos as possible. As for myself, I'm no longer purely chaotic... This world has changed me for better or worse. And bear in mind, the only predictable thing about chaos is how horribly unpredictable it is. If we all acted wild and unruly we'd be conforming to laws stating we had to... Or something like that anyway.' Ghen chuckled before continuing. 'There are two polar sides to chaos. Imagination and Destruction. Most chaotic beings have a deal of both to some degree. You yourself may be more chaotic than you could ever realise. Actually...'

Ghen placed his left hand over the scabbard on his leg. An odd light shimmered and then materialised into his other weapon, the scimitar Law Bane. Ghen jumped down towards his opponent, Void in his right hand and Law Bane in his left. He purposely slashed out pretending to use Law Bane as his defending weapon. His left blade slashed towards Gabrielle...

[Aerif]

She was surprised to make contact with the man, he had moved quickly and efficiently though she had managed to kick him somehow. It was probably the very fact that she had been successful in her attack that she hesitated when he took flight.

He was coming at her now with two blades, both looking as sinister as the other. It seemed to be an assault coming in slow-motion as though they where underwater, she moved to the left, but she wasn’t quite fast enough to completely avoid the slash that was evident when the scimitar managed to cut into her arm. It wasn’t a deep cut, though it wasn’t exactly a paper cut either, certainly not something that magic could instantly heal.

“Actually, if imagination could be considered as chaos then every species could be considered chaotic. After all, every creation on this planet must first have come from the imagination of a Deity, however I have the distinct feeling that it’s a little more complex than that”

She was teasing him, but the battle was still intense. She proved this by taking full advantage of the area, the light of the sun was allowing her blade to gain more strength, and she unleashed this strength by swiftly spinning round and cutting into the tree that her arrow had penetrated. The tree was dead, so the blade sliced straight through it, and now the tree was falling. Directly above Ghen.

[Furore]

Ghen grinned wondering just how the effects of his scimitar would effect his opponent. It always effected people differently, some it didn't really seem to effect at all, but when it did, the results could be spectacular. But then the reckless abandon it inspired in some could actually disadvantage Ghen, once again depending on the person in question.

'Actually, if imagination could be considered as chaos then every species could be considered chaotic. After all, every creation on this planet must first have come from the imagination of a Deity, however I have the distinct feeling that it’s a little more complex than that,' Gabrielle said, before slicing through one of the dead trees. The tree that held the arrow from before

As the tree fell towards him, Ghen threw his scimitar to meet it, grunting as the blade disappeared into the immaterial. Ghen caught the slowed tree barehanded and dropped it to the side of him before it could break the bones in his hands. As he unleashed a flurry of blows with Void, he noticed to his dissatisfaction, that despite the brief usage of the scimitar it had drained him just enough as to stop him from using his Chaos Break technique.

'It's unnatural for anything to be completely devoid of chaos,' Ghen started. 'But there are many who suppress it, either within themselves or a society. That's where I come in.'

[Aerif]

She was startled by the man’s strength; he had managed to avoid major damage from the tree without the need to step out the way. In fact, he was standing in the same place that he had been standing just mere seconds ago. The same place where in normal circumstances, the tree would be lying.

For some reason, Gabrielle was feeling large pangs of guilt, there was a nagging feeling within her that what she was doing was not for the best. There was a questioning within her that objected to her morals and seemed to think that what she was doing was in fact wrong. However, despite these feelings and their utmost strength, she managed to brush them to the side. After all, Ghen was attacking again.

The sword was moving rather rapidly, though from the look on Ghen’s face, something seemed to have gone wrong. It was this look of displeasure that gave Gabrielle a surge of confidence, she moved her weapon in rhythm with Ghen’s and the possibly fatal hits from his sword where successfully blocked, though the force of the blows where causing her to take steps backwards. They where getting closer and closer to the lake.

Whilst defending, the conversation continued, as was to be expected from a polite point of view.

“So you’re saying that where society suppresses chaos, you cause destruction? You damage people and their homes just to keep a chaotic balance?”

The blows seemed to be getting no less rough, nor did they show much potential of stopping or slowing down. It was time to act, so she crouched down, elongated the sword and made a sweeping movement towards Ghen’s feet.

[Furore]

As the two traded blow for blow, Ghen's opponent asked him another question.
'So you’re saying that where society suppresses chaos, you cause destruction? You damage people and their homes just to keep a chaotic balance?'

As his opponent crouched down, Ghen threw Void into the air before flipping forwards above her. As her blade swiped the air where Ghen's feet had been, he landed on a rock in the middle of the salty lake. With a gesture of his right hand purely for theatrics he called Void back to his hand, noticing as he did that the rock he now stood on was sinking into the water quite rapidly.

Ghen jumped to the next rock and kept his guard up. This rock stayed put. Ghen laughed, a barely audible sound. This area, wasn't always as it appeared, and that was yet another of those things which amused Ghen to some extent.

'No, I wouldn't say that exactly. Larger societies tend to be more chaotic than smaller ones. And destruction is not always a bad thing... Ever hear of the eucalypt? Some species actually use their bark to aid a fire, so it can release the plant's seedlings. Essentially aiding newer life. Reproduction. Things are not always as first guess would indicate. But enough of this, let's see if you can get as good a footing as I have.'

Ghen decided to allow his opponent the next move. He hoped she'd take some time so he could regain some of his energy. He'd make his move soon, but the time was not right. Yet...

[Aerif]

Was he trying to avoid her? Had she ran him down, weakened him, perhaps even gained an advantage over him. No matter what the answer was to the question, she had managed to push him to force himself onto the lake that spread out beside the hut. Though it had of course given him the tactical advantage as Gabrielle felt herself rather unwilling to traverse into the salty waters.

“I feel that I’m beginning to understand the destructive side of chaos. Though I still feel that it is morally incorrect, if you permit me in saying so. This ‘eucalypt’ may be an example of constructive destruction; however destruction happens to be a bad thing in most of the experiences on this planet. History is a constant reminder of this, the chaos of war, natural disasters, extinction of species, is that your jurisdiction?”

As unwilling as she was to take footing upon the lake, it felt important to keep the battle going. Gabrielle was genuinely interested in what Ghen was saying, not because it was morally correct in her eyes or because imagination was something that she considered herself to have a plentiful supply of. But because what he was saying was new to her, a concept that she had never understood and was now beginning to understand. She hardly wanted to stop mid-conversation.

By now Gabrielle was at the water’s edge, whilst Ghen didn’t seem to be making any effort to attack. That was certainly unnerving, considering the heavy hits that he had been employing just mere minutes ago, one would have expected him to consider his assault, but instead he waited on the lake. There was obviously a plan formulating in his head.

Her foot rested upon one of the rocks on the edge of the lake, it was sinking by the time her full wait was focussed on it, so she was forced to move on, using the rocks as stepping stones and even hurriedly using the density of the lake to reach other rocks. Now that she had arrived on even footing, she realised that she didn’t have many options in the way of assault at this distance, so instead she took a prayer like position, joining her hands and rising her eyes to heaven. Then, as quickly as lightning, she brought her hands apart and moved them as if they where daggers, sending two sickle-like formations of pure light energy towards Ghen.

(OOC - Sorry about the wait, I've been a little busy lately)

[Furore]

'I feel that I’m beginning to understand the destructive side of chaos. Though I still feel that it is morally incorrect, if you permit me in saying so. This ‘eucalypt’ may be an example of constructive destruction; however destruction happens to be a bad thing in most of the experiences on this planet. History is a constant reminder of this, the chaos of war, natural disasters, extinction of species, is that your jurisdiction?' Ghen's opponent spoke before finding a place on the lake.

As the two bolts of pure light energy flew towards Ghen, Void flashed and the void within was lit for mere seconds. As the crackling subsided, Ghen smiled towards his opponent.

'You have my thanks. You see my sword Void sends light energy amongst others right back to the true Void. Essentially making your attack.... Void.' Ghen chuckled. 'The Void thanks you. Onto what you yourself just said though, history is history. My jurisdiction is people in the here and now. While destruction is indeed chaotic, so is life. And a world where people are no more, would be very lawful indeed. Nothing happening...' Ghen paused, making sure he was looking his opponent directly in the eyes.

'Now where was I...' he started again, before pausing briefly. 'Oh yes, time to show you the chaos I know. Where is it...' Ghen was searching deep within himself. He knew he had to find it fast. His memories of a time when he was one with chaos. He found it.

A crack formed above Ghen, then two, then three. Hairline cracks revealing the true Void. As the void started leaking through the cracks, it's vacuum caused the eerie whistle, the song of the void. Ghen's hair flew about him, whipped by unseen winds, the reds in his eyes glowed a fiery crimson, fueled by unseen fire. And his face was like the tides, soothing yet with a feeling of almost unlimited potential.

'I am Ghen,' Ghen spoke, in a voice bold with authority. 'I AM ONE WITH THE VOID!'
Ghen dashed towards his opponent at a speed close to the speed of light. As his sword, closed in towards his opponent, he grinned. It was not a grin any completely sane person could make. It was a grin born of true chaos, an unrelenting madness and the thirst of a psychopath with the desire to challenge predefined boundaries. It was the smile of Ghen's true face.

[Aerif]

She had been positive that Ghen had simply been an obstacle in her path to allow her to continue her training. However now she was uncertain whether or not Ghen was intending to kill her. Thankfully her eyes could see movement of higher frequencies than most other species could; therefore, she knew right away that Ghen was charging towards her.

There wasn’t enough time to do much; though she took a risk by choosing to dive to the left as soon as he had began his assault. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts she couldn’t quite manage to control her fall, and as she hit the water she felt a surge of pain in both of her arms, her right arm had been deeply cut by Ghen’s ‘Void’ blade and her left arm had been hurt due to the extreme density of the water, in fact at this present time the water felt like stone ground and Gabrielle felt as though her arm had been hit by a hammer of some sort.

As she sunk into the water she felt more pain than she had ever felt in her lifetime, the salt from the water had made its way into the cuts she had received from Ghen and where causing her more pain than the cuts themselves had actually caused. She made an attempt to ignore this pain and tried to dive down through the water, though it was too much of an effort to swim through the liquid and instead she surfaced and climbed on top of a rock that seemed to be steady enough.

There was no sign of Ghen, well, she couldn’t see him at least, she realised now that he had probably used the strongest attack in his arsenal, so now she would counter-measure it by bending the light presented by the sun so that the area did not look like it usually did. She herself could see the original area, however her opponent would see rocks in places where water had previously been and water where rocks had previously been, the image presented would actually make it seem like the whole place had been inverted, though there had been precautions taken, the ‘lake’ still took up a lot of room and the geographical outlook had remained the same. It was just little differences, differences that would become apparent if Ghen was unfortunate to find himself upon water which looked like land.

[Furore]

Ghen raced along the ground, running past his opponent with his sword sweeping forwards, turning and repeating several times. After the thirteenth lap with his sword he leapt into the sky with a roar of exertion on his lips.

'RRRAAARRRRGGGHHHH!' He screamed bringing Void down in a massive cleaving motion. But as he landed on the rock he'd been aiming for, he passed through it. He sunk to the depths of the lake and kicked off the bottom, the grains of salt in the water scraping his speedy body quite thoroughly. Though he was confused by what had happened, the chaos still sang and his mind was still somewhat focused.

As Ghen reached for a rock nearby, his arm passed through it. He closed his eyes and felt around for anything he could stand on. He found what he was looking for quickly, but the cracks leading to the Void were closing rapidly, and with them Ghen's higher level abilities.

As Ghen scrambled onto the rock, the cracks to the Void vanished completely. Ghen panted heavily, barely able to breathe let alone stand. But he still managed a grin as his hands slowly tore some bandaging from his torso. As he wrapped the cloth over his eyes, he laughed, his chest feeling like it was on fire.

'Imp...Impressive. That wa... was quite a strat.. strategy you pulled... off.' Ghen grinned towards his opponent once more. 'Quite chaotic. Bu.. argh... But I'm not done... not yet...'
Ghen called his sword to his hands once more, this time taking a two handed grip to better use the strength he had left. He listened for his opponent's movements...

[Aerif]

Her defence against his array of attacks seemed to have worked quite well against the man, better than she could’ve possibly expected. Though falling into the water had obviously greatly injured him, she too was feeling great pain from the salt in her wounds. Her eyes where watery and tears where streaming down her face mixed with the salty water of the lake. And although he had nearly killed her with his assault, she couldn’t help but feel flattered by his compliment to her strategy.

“Why… Why, t-thank y-you. I m-must ad-admit that that s-song… Or that w-whistling sound tech-technique was also pretty impressive.”

It was surprising how painful talking seemed to be after submerging underneath the lake.

“Though d-desperate times call for d-desperate m-m-measures...”

Ghen had closed his eyes to hide the illusion of the light. He seemed to be relying on his sense of hearing as when Gabrielle shook her head trying to dry her hair he turned towards her. He was in a defensive position. It seemed as though Gabrielle had gained an advantage.

She leaped up, and using the power of her wings which where still concealed, brought herself down, sword slashing downwards towards Ghen.

[Furore]

'Why… Why, t-thank y-you. I m-must ad-admit that that s-song… Or that w-whistling sound tech-technique was also pretty impressive.' Ghen's opponent replied to him. Ghen couldn't help but notice the pain in her voice.
'Though d-desperate times call for d-desperate m-m-measures...'

Ghen listened for her movements, hearing her run towards him. But then the sound just seemed to vanish... Ghen focused on his ears, the air-borne sound waves around him funneling down his ear canals before striking his eardrums and causing them to vibrate. He focused, singling out the sounds around him. The sounds of the dead trees swaying, the sound of the thick water sloshing around him, the sound of a piece of the meditation hut falling to the ground. He heard it all, including the sound directly above him.

Ghen swung his sword up to meet that of his opponent, but as their swords locked again, he decided to end this. He wasn't supposed to die, at least not yet. He still had too much to do, the Void having an insatiable hunger at times. And he was getting close to what his body could handle.

'Had enough, miss?' Ghen started, using all his strength to make his words more solid and unwavering. 'This has gone a little far for training. And as that's mostly my fault, I do feel I must apologise. I don't know about you, but I'm almost dead, and don't feel that high a desire to die right now. It's ultimately your decision what happens from here though.'

Ghen paused, before continuing. 'Whatever the case, it has been an honor to fight you, a glorious dance indeed.'