Mind Games (Thrane/Miraya)

Thrane had given her the first hit, and then she countered him beautifully as well. She was a quick thing, despite being taller than he was, and she was strong to match it. His punch had only barely connected, but it had done damage. Though it was minor, she would be open to him now. His fist had those spikes upon them, and he could tell it had done something to the girl.

When she moved to parry his blade and blow it, he smiled under his mask. Every little tick of damage was going to add up, and rather rapidly. His power would see to that much if nothing else, every small cut, every scratch, bruise, and nick would all pile on more and more to his ability.

When she moved around him and fired the rapid fire bala, he only barely able to defend himself. Sure, his herro was dense as hell and would absorb a lot of the damage, but she would still get in her fair share of it. When she landed to preform her stroke, the hullucination was already in effect. It would look like he had predicted her move and was ready with a fully charged cero!

If she was enough enough however, she would notice mistaskes. The mask was broken on the wrong side, it had the wrong colors, and his sword was in the wrong hand. If she continued with her attack anyways, she wouldn't find anything. His reflexes had kicked in and he was moving away from her, up into the air. He needed to get a bit of distanced to plan his attack... Or if push came to shove, simply overwhelm her with his raw power.

He looked to his blade for a moment before turning back to the location he was at a moment ago. If she hadn't moved, then he was going to prepare to fire a cero at her. If she had moved away, he would be searching for her and her energy.

She wasn't entirely sure what her attack with her balas had managed to do. She had hoped they would do some damage but she hadn't been planning on it. She had hoped that it would distract him long enough in order let her land her strike. She had bet on at least a little bit of surprise to be a factor in her attack but when she went in for the hit he was ready for her as he could be. He had prepared a cero straight at her. She had to do something about that or it would destroy her quickly.

Luckily fast thinking was something that she had learned to do rather well. She had invested to much into the attack not to make it count for something. Looking at him she noticed that something felt wrong about the whole situation but she didn't know him well enough to say for sure what it was. Plus in a high stress situation like having a cero pointed straight at you it didn't leave time to think of the specifics of the situation. She knew that something was wrong but not enough to tell her the person she was attacking wasn't real.

She made the decision to continue the attack figuring that she should be able to handle it. One thing that cero was that it was more or less designed as a ranged attack. The key to defeating most ranged attacks was to get in close which she already was. She instantly changed her plan to adjust to the cero. She raised her right arm hitting hitting his head to divert cero away from her while her left hand continued his attack her blades on point to pierce into his body. That was when she knew that something was wrong. Her attack managed to hit absolutely nothing even though she knew she should have managed to hit him.

Her mind raced trying to figure out what was going on. The first thing that she noticed was that his cero he had charged hadn't fired yet. Plus the fact that her attack seemed to hit nothing meant that not only was the attack fake the entire body was fake. She knew that it meant something bad for her. First off the thing that struck her was that he managed to create it in the first place. If he could create a fake that would be a problem. She would have to be careful in order to not waste her energy attacking a fake him.

The next thing was what leaving a fake behind for her to attack meant for her. The most likely reason to leave it was to lure her into attack it. That way he could strike back at her. She wasn't sure where he was at but the wrong thing to do would be stay where she was. He must have something planned to attack her. She jumped backwards as far as she could turning around ready to propel herself forward when her feet landing to make as much distance as possible. She needed to find him in order to figure out what he had in mind and make her next move. She turned around to try and see where his attack would come from. Following his attack should let her at least find him. Then it would be up to her to move in for another attack. She would need to pay more attention this time to try and make sure she could figure out that fake him thing.

There she was... She had seen through the hallucination in her own way. That was good. Very good. She had a lot of potential. She was quick on her feet and agile in her own mind. How far could she go before they start to break her however? How deep into the darkness could she venture before she screamed in terror? How long would it take her to feel the crushing despair of being alone?

All that was for another day. Thrane had to test this girl in the here and now. She had battled past the first of the hallucinations he could induce. The wound was slight, so the effect was weakened. He would need to change that. He opened this renewed round of battle by firing the cero he had build up, adding a little twist to it. All he did was make it seem the color had been changed.

To her, it would look black and green, but still a cero none the less. She would have the choices of taking it, which would end poorly, or dodging, which would put her on the move again and maybe, just maybe, leave her wondering if that was the real attack or not.

Still, in the long run, Thrane didn't care. The next attack would be decided soon, and he would simply have to show her what power was, and how far outstripped she was at the moment. She could use his help, but to him, it seemed like she didn't want it, not unless he proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was more powerful than she even knew.

With his cero spent, he placed his sword upon his left arm. His spiritual pressure would go through the roof as he spoke those words. "Hunt, Wraith..." He said, a glow infusing him.

When it ebbed down, he stood still in the air. He was armored in bone, the markings on his mask seeming to come down across the rest of his body, and his sword had changed to simple triangle shield, a blades edge on both sides and a short sword like blade out of the end of it. He simply waited now, standing in the sky like a beacon for her to lock onto.

She had already been prepared for an attack coming from somewhere else the moment she realized that he was playing tricks with a fake. She wasn't one to stick and take big hits especially when he was a lot stronger then her. She knew that the chances that she could win this fight were low but she had to at least give it a chance. If she lost then he would help her get stronger and if she won then she could devour him and still grow stronger. It really ended up being a win win situation for her but she didn't like having to trust people which was why she would rather try to fight and win. She didn't need much time to move away from his cero since she was already moving.

She saw that the cero looked strange as she dodged the blast. She noticed that the color was strange compared to the cero that had been charging on the fake one earlier. She had to consider that if he could create an illusion of himself he could certainly make an illusionary attack. She was interested in how he did that. It seemed like a useful trick to have in ones arsenal. Her own ability to mess with another's mind was a little limited but rewarding when it worked. She was always looking out for ways to improve her abilities to make herself more deadly and this certainly caught her interest.

Her attention was drawn to him as he began his release. She knew that he was stronger then her normally and now he had done this on top of it. He must be getting bored with the fight if he was willing to go that far so soon. He probably wanted to overpower her quickly and get everything over with. If she wanted to last more then a few moments against him now she only had one resort. She held out her arm gathering her power. "Ascend into the heavens and crash down again," she would say leaping into the air "Daten-Shi" Her body would begin to change a bit more dramatically then her opponent. She would grow nearly two feet taller, her abnormally large shoulder blades would erupt out in a pair of black wings, her arms would grow spikes on the back, her fingers now sharp as daggers and if used together would act like a spear head, and lastly her mask would now ascend over her head forming a broken ring over it.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to do much against him in close combat. His skin had been tough before and would probably be even more so. One advantage to this form was that she gained a fair number of ranged options to fight with. She began to charge her arms with power making them both glow black. She would be able to launch an even more impressive barrage of bala with them but she might want to keep the charge for a bit in order to block an attack from him. It certainly appeared that he would focus on a close attack. She knew that the fight probably wouldn't last to much longer though.

"So this is it then. Our fight will be decided soon. Will I go with you or continue on my own? Lets find out."

She had two other options to attack from a distance. She could charge and launch her own cero. The idea was tempting. Her cero was unusually strong compared to other hollows her level but she also had a difficult time controlling it. She could end up wasting the time and energy it would take to try it. Her other ability was a lot better to at least try out. It didn't focus on one large hit. It did exactly the opposite. It would bombard him with a virtual storm of blasts. She began to beat her wing toward him after a couple of flaps she would start launching her feathers toward him. Each one was filled with her reiatsu which caused them to become small bombs. The feathers would race to her opponent exploding on contact.