Smashing (round 5 part 2)

Flurries of ki and ice hurl toward Jorry as he races toward the fugitives. Izak and Jake bombard him with pink daggers and frozen shards. The small blades are a trifle. Effortlessly spinning his massive mace, the young judge deflects all projectiles. His stride does not break.

Izak runs in with an ice spear, thrusting toward the child's small frame. Jorry has no trouble avoiding such a simple attack; his minuscule stature and quick reflexes make dodging literally child's play. He weaves around the much taller mage, limited in movement not in the slightest. The melee inclined wizard struggles to keep track of where his tiny foe is at any given moment. He finds himself on the ground without warning, having had his feet swept from under him by a smooth movement of the judge's gavel.

Just as the boy is about to bring his more-than-metaphorical hammer down on his floored opponent, a bare foot crashes into him. "Oof!" he coughs, quickly backing away from his assailant and victim as he remembers the second fighter.

"I don't like being ganged up on," he says with a sneer, "especially by two low class cretins." He readies his hammer as Izak lifts himself from the cold slate floor. His focus stays on the dark clothed greaser wannabe. Taking on two semiskilled combatants is never a good idea, not when they are working in tandem; one needs to be removed from the equation.

Before he can fully regain his balance, Izak finds himself flying through the air with a dull pain in his gut; Jorry had slipped past the acrobat before he could defend his comrade, suffering only a small cut on cheek. Stone rains sideways as the mage crashes into the castle wall. Dust blankets the area in thick clouds. He does not emerge.

"Doesn't look like your magician pal will be continuing this fight," says Jorry, confident that he had just evened the odds, "He wasn't much fun anyway. Try to make this fun for me before I snap your legs!" He swings his mighty hammer at Jake's knees, though misses as the performer leaps into the air. The colorful man summons a pole-arm, swinging it down at his foe, knocking his hat off.

Jorry reaches for his fallen hat but it is crushed as Jake lands straight on top of it. "Oops," he says sarcastically, "was that your hat sir?" Enraged, the small child swings berserkly at the gymnast, aiming high. Jake struggles to deflect or dodge the massive metal maul. A few hits land on the angry child, forcing him to rethink his reckless approach. He strategizes quickly, swinging at the acrobat's legs once more.

Jake does just as predicted and jumps up and over the judge, swinging his pole-arm at his head. He misses, as planned, and falls toward the floor... the hammer smashes into his back; Jorry had slipped behind him in the few seconds he was in the air. The crack of bone is audible. Crippling pain surges through the young man as he soars several meters away; this pain doubles as he hits the ground.

Feeling victory is within grasp, Jorry strides over to his fallen foe's crumpled body to finish the job. He gloats, "Surely you had to know that the two of you weaklings couldn't possibly- Ah!" a pink dagger lodges itself in his shoulder. Jake jumps to his feet but collapses before he can fully stand, his back too far injured.

"As I was saying...," the judge says, pulling the colorful knife from his body just in time to find a boot implanted into his back. With a strong kick, his light frame flies far away from the grounded acrobat. He rolls as he hits the ground, looking back to see who had robbed him of a quick ending. He is not surprised to see who had done it, but is disappointed in himself for not hitting him harder. Izak turns away, facing down at his broken ally.

The mage rolls Jake on his stomach, causing great pain. "Who's handicapped now, eh?" he jokes, still unable to take their situation seriously. He lowers down beside the pale young man, bending his knees, to reach his back. Gold rays shine from his hands as he begins healing the fractured areas.

"N-not the time! Shit!" Jake yells, agonized and not amused by the wizard's wise crack. He can feel the splintered bones of his spine mending themselves, each movement causing severe pain. Far away, he sees Jorry standing back up, picking his dropped hammer off of the ground. "He's coming back, hurry up!" he cries. Izak pours the whole of his concentration into healing. It is not long before the deadly kid is close again, despite walking at a calm pace.

A broken spine is a hard thing to heal fully. Jake forces himself up, their enemy far too close to ignore any longer. Izak notices a slight jerk as Jake tries to stand up straight, disgruntled that he could not be more thorough. He also stands to his full height with much less effort, as he had healed himself before returning to the fray.

"So much trouble for one little kid, tsk tsk tsk," he goads, "Killing you weaklings won't even be fun!" He swings swiftly at the mage, who blocks with a quick sheet of ice. Izak counters with an upper cut but misses by mere half-inch. Jake swings a pink bo staff, not allowing the fight to be one sided again. Jorry parries with the hilt of his hammer, causing it to hit the darkly clad man in the forehead.

"Ow!" he says, giving Jake a glare, "I heal you, you hurt me, is that how this works?" He blocks a blow with another sheet of ice, sweeping under Jorry's with his leg. The judge jumps.

Jake hastily says, "Sorry! Can we just finish this guy?" He dodges a kick from a small leg, distracted enough that he doesn't do the same for the pommel of the boy's hammer.

Jorry swings wide, forcing the pair to jump away in response. Izak hits the judge with a direct blast of pure arcane energy. The boy is startled for a moment, but quickly realizes he is unharmed; his resistance to magic protecting him fully from the attack.

"That wasn't supposed to hurt me, was it?" he says unharmed, brushing his shirt as if the spell had somehow dirtied it. Opening his arms out wide, he dares the spellcaster to try again with a smug grin.

Izak obliges, conjuring an intensely hot fireball in his black, gloved hand. Confident that the second attack will harm him as little as its predecessor, Jorry makes no attempt to prepare himself from a second strike,

Izak throws his flaming orb at the small boy, grinning as it flies. As the sphere of flame approaches him, Jorry smirks... that is, until a wave of heat rolls across his face.

By a hair, Jorry dodges the fiery ball, his sleeve lighting up with ravenous intent. Jorry the cloth clean off just as fire licks flesh.

Before he can react, a black fist catches him in the jaw, sending Jorry back several feet. While still assessing what just happened, a brightly colored pole strikes him from behind, slamming him into the ground.

He stammers up using his hammer for support, blood running from his lips.
                           
He spits his life water onto the ground and regains his posture. With anger in his eyes, he asks, "Why did that fire burn me? I'm supposed to be immune to magic." The confusion he feels is genuine, as well as apparent to the other two men.

Izak smirks lightly, replying, "Resistant people always seem to assume that their clothes are just as resistant. Once the fire hit your shirt, the heat took over and it spread naturally..." Izak holds his hand off to the side, "but I prefer something with a bit more solidity." Layer after layer of clear ice forms over the mage's gloved hand, giving it a resemblance to a predetor's claw.

Frantic gunfire demands their attention, alerting the pair to their allies' plight? "Lets finish this up quickly so we can help the others and ditch this place." Izak silently agrees with his counterpart, readying his bladed hand.

Jorry smiles, standing the hammer on its head. He beckons for his opponents to come for him while casually leaning on the handle.

They dash toward the young boy with haste, not waiting to see what Jorry has planned, in a formation similar to the one used on Rebecca by the judges; however, no on will be there to catch their blows as they had done.

Their target is eerily calm, patiently waiting for his attackers to be upon him. From opposite sides with weapons poised to strike, they approach.

The young judge jumps into the air, an easy target! Izak and Jake attack Jorry from both sides, mirroring one another as they strike at the airborne child. with a sinister smile, the boy pushes the handle of his hammer, taking him out of the weapons' path. Jake's blade dissipates just before piercing Izak's heart, though the mage is not so fast in doing the same. Blood seeps from the acrobat's mouth and chest in near equal amounts.

"Oh fuck!" Izak cries as he retracts the ice claw from his partner, desperately trying to heal Jake's chest. The dying man's rapidly beating heart pumps blood steadily out, tearing itself as fast as it can be healed. He sinks to the ground, holding on to the mage's black forearm. Izak lowers himself, frantically trying to save his friend's life.

Jorry coldly laughs at his futile desperation. "I thought you were on his side, mage?" he taunts, "Weren't you supposed to kill me? You aren't doin' a very good job of it! What a failure you are. Had you just moved your arm a little to the right, you would've missed him!" He cackles at the pair, wildly amused by how easy it had been to manipulate them.

He looks on to the other battle to see how Claudia is fairing against her opponents. The malicious young boy laughs even harder than before. "Things aren't looking good for pals hehehe," he says with a vile grin, "If you don't start paying attention to me again, I'm going to have to go steal Claudia's prey to stay entertained!"

Izak does not stop the flow of magic into his healing, looking to his injured comrade for an answer. Jake knows that the only thing keeping him alive is the mage's healing. He understands that as soon as he stops, death will take him. Making his decision, he says to Izak, "Looks like my act is over... cough cough... but you need to keep the show going."

Reluctantly, Izak ceases healing Jake, watching as life quickly drains from his eyes. Gently, he lays down his head on the tiled floor. His brow furrows, eyes glaring up at the boy who tricked him into killing his own friend.

Still unsatisfied with the current level of prodding he has done, Jorry pushes further. "You've just killed your friend, why give me that look? Why, I've done nothing wrong at all! I'll tell you what, if you stop resisting, I'll let you join him right away," he says, not caring one way or another how the wizard responds; his only goal is to torment the mage while he can. Sadly, he shows no outward signs of being any angrier and, in fact, becomes visibly more relaxed; this confuses the young judge.

"The plan is the same," Izak says, raising himself back up, "I'm going to beat the shit out of you and go home. Unfortunately for you, I plan on keeping you alive now."

"Oh?" Jorry says, amused by the bravado this man still shows, "And even if you could kill me, why wouldn't you?" He puts his hand over his mouth as if to stifle a laugh.

Izak says in an uncharacteristically dark tone, "The dead can't feel pain."