I Will Fight You to the Death

[Henry Hunter]

"Dante, my good man!" puffed Henry, bursting out of the building and jogging to catch up to the taller and rather fitter fellow marshal. Henry Hunter looked like his normal, disheveled self - his hair was a mess, tousled and turned up, his black robes were rumpled, his eyes had dark circles under him and looked a little crazy, the sort of crazy one gets when one has been awake for four days and recently consumed seven shots of espresso.

"What're you doing, right now? This second, I mean!"

Henry's eyes were bright, excitable and enthused. He would never admit to himself that this whole expedition was on a whim (a fantastical whim!), no - everything he did was planned!

To the T!

[Dante D'arco]

Dante had been on his way to try and find Elina when Henry ran, puffing, up to him. He was extremely curious what Henry wanted that he was in such a rush and needed it done this instant. He considered momentarily and than replied, "I am not busy at the moment. What I was doing can wait What may I help you with?"

Dante occasionally let curiosity get the better of him and today was one of those days. He wanted to know what Henry needed as he usually had something interesting to do. He would pay for making Elina wait later but he would worry about that than and would worry about the present now.

[Henry Hunter]

"Spellgloves!" burst out Henry, as if that ought to explain virtually everything all at once. He looked to Dante expectantly a moment, waiting for a response, before it occurred to him that perhaps additional clarification ought to be forthcoming. "You're a decent dueler, aren't you, mate? So you wouldn't mind testing out a little something with me, now, would you?"

He produced two right-handed gloves then, both a soft blue that shimmered strangely with what was (on closer inspection) interwoven unicorn hairs. The fabric itself was silky and strange, a little stretchy, just enough so the fit would be snug on an adult hand.

"Nothing to compare to a wand, of course, nothing ever will I imagine, but you never know until you try 'em, eh?" He held out one to Dante, slipping the other over his own hand and wiggled his fingers experimentally, "This is my seventh go at them, they keep blowing up, but so far I've gotten basic spells to work, you see. See, watch."

Picking a twig at random on the ground, Henry Hunter gestured toward it with his spell-gloved hand. The gesture was almost identical to the swish-and-flick he would have used had he been actually holding a wand, except that he kept his pointer finger out, as if to simulate the missing magical conductor. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Henry Hunter said confidently. The little twig shuddered and then lifted from the ground. It dropped when Henry broke the spell.

"See? Great, aren't they? But I'd like to put them through a bit more rigorous testing, thought a knowledgeable marshal would do the trick. Just a friendly little duel, you know, if you wouldn't mind obliging - oh, you are right-handed, aren't you?"

[Tobias Maldechor]

Tobias was in fact walking very fast towards his office as he'd spend most of his day researching in the Library some ancient scrolls and books about a certain topic he was studying on. He still had some scrolls under his right arm as he was crossing the hallway between the courtyard and the main hall that led to his office, when he overheard their conversation.

He knew Henry of course, he was probably as mad as he was; maybe even as brilliant as well and he said something about spellgloves-Damn! Why didn't he think about that before?

The other man was the astringent looking Mr. D'arco. Him he didn't know that well, but that wouldn't stop him from entering into a yet not invited conversation. And so it was that he snapped his fingers twice and the scrolls he was carrying towards his office vanished and he began to approach the two other Marshals.

Tobias was absolutely enthralled by the idea of spellgloves. "Did I hear right? Are those Spellgloves Henry?" Tobias was right besides them.

" Hello Mr. D'arco." he greeted the other Wizard besides him, then he asked Henry quite baffled, "Surely the magical dynamics of these babies must be staggering."

He was almost wanting to grab one and start studying it. He also seemed like a little boy who wanted to be invited to play with the rest.

[Henry Hunter]

"Did I hear right? Are those Spellgloves Henry?"

Oh, you heard right, my friend. Henry turned to the questioner, and his face lit up even further to find it was Tobias. Oh, Tobias! Henry Hunter very much liked the company of the Professor. Of course Henry himself didn't carry such certifications, no - he'd spent all his time before Furiae working in the Ministry's experimental charms division, not teaching - but he'd always felt a certain kinship with Tobias. The man was mad - delightfully mad! Henry understood he spent most of his time much as Henry himself did: locked away in his laboratory, dragged out only to fulfill certain duties, and then swiftly returning to his tinkerings.

Henry recalled then that he hadn't yet visited Tobias's lab. He understood it was somewhere deep in the belly of the prison, but couldn't be torn away from his work on the second story to see. Perhaps he'd fetch an invitation after this.

"Tobias! Welcome! Yes, of course, they're quite fantastic - you don't mind, do you, Dante?" The spellglove he was about to pass to the first marshal Henry handed instead to Tobias. "Don't worry, I'll muster up another - I have four of the current model, actually - Accio Third Spellglove."

While he was waiting for the replacement for Dante, Henry busied himself with explaining the soft blue glove to Tobias. He waved his hands, "Go on, put it on, try it out! They're made out of Demiguise hide with unicorn hair woven in. And that right there--" Henry turned the glove in Tobias's hand to show the inner edge of the thumb, where a shimmer of silver gleamed. "Be very careful not to nick that. A scale from a Ramora fish! You have no idea what I had to pay to get it. It's what keeps causing them to blow up, you know, but I can't think of any other way to do it. Powerfully, powerfully magic fish." He paused and then added brightly, "They're protected from poaching!"

Henry continued then, "Anyway, the Ramora scale gives them a bit of residual magic. Sort of starts the whole kick... I don't think we'll ever be able to improve upon the wand, you know, but I actually think that with some work it might prove an alternate for Squibs to utilize. Not as good, but better than nothing."

He looked on, eager, as the third spellglove arrived and he handed it over as Dante's replacement. "What do you think?"

[Tobias Maldechor]

Tobias didn't make the other wizard wait, he immediately donned the glove. It actually felt comfortable, a slight magical almost imperceptible vibration caressed every fiber of the hand. They were indeed powerful. Tobias smiled to himself.

He listened the other wizard with interest and dedication, almost as if he'd been receiving a lesson in Advanced Enchantments. His eyes were completely focused on Henry and at the same time on the glove. He listened as Henry explained the glove's different components; Demiguise, Unicorn hairs and Ramora fish's scales.

Indeed Henry Hunter was mad but at the same time two single words escaped Tobias' mouth, "Marvelously Genius!"

He then extended his arm and saw the glove in his hand. "I am sure the magical output of this devices will definitely be outstanding." He stopped trying to think on the little problem of them exploding. "You say they keep on exploding. Maybe you need a magical buffer between the energy purported by the Ramora's scale and the Demiguise and Unicorn filaments."

He didn't know exactly, he was just trying to help. "I heard you said duel, right here, right now Henry?" His eyes were those of a ten year old wanting to try a new broom.

[Henry Hunter]

"A magical buffer," Henry repeated dully, as if the words made no sense when strung together, like it was the first time he'd ever tried saying them out loud. Quite suddenly his eyes lit up.

"Tobias, I could kiss you! Yes, of course - fantastic! What a spectacular idea, can't believe I didn't think of it. Say, after we give them a bit of a test-fly, you wouldn't care to come up to my experiment room for a bit, would you? Maybe you can help me out with it. What do you say, eh?"

Henry beamed at Tobias widely, clearly almost bursting with delight at the prospect.

"I heard you said duel," Tobias was then saying, "Right here, right now Henry?"

"Love to!" With a billow of black robes, the marshal spun and moved away, widening the gap between Tobias and himself to give the battle room. He then glanced at Dante. "You don't mind, do you, Dante?"

Without waiting for a response, Henry then gestured broadly, with an extravagant flourish, at his dueling partner. A crackling roar erupted as flames burst from the tips of his blue, glove-covered fingers and shot through the air.

[Tobias Maldechor]

Tobias saw Henry pulling backwards, his black robe rolling behind him. The wizard smiled a devilish smirk. He himself retreated back some space, so the duel could in fact have room to develop.

Then Henry made a series of gestures with his wand and out from them burst forth a quite remarkable globule of flame. Tobias couldn't help to notice the brilliant colors of the fire erupting towards himself.

The mixture of reds, yellows and oranges where superb. They moved also in an erratic way, almost derelict but definitively towards him. The magical flames were almost about him.

Just, then he suddenly realized he didn't actually know how to use the spell-glove. A tactical error on his behalf and one that would cost him dearly. He felt the energy surging on the spell glove but couldn't use it.

"Protego!" shouted Tobias but forgot to wave his spell-glove in the right way. A sudden burst of energy collected about the tip of the spell-glove, it was a shimmering blue sphere of crackling energy that quickly dissipated before his very eyes.

In a rush, the flames of the Incendio quickly reached him and send him flying back a couple of feet. The wizard landed on his bottom with a loud thud.

He exploded in laughter.

"This is amazing Henry!" he replied as he stood once again. Silently studying the glove he looked at it and then shouted with all of his might, this time remembering to wave the glove as if it were a wand.

"Glacius!"

Immediately a stream of white energy launched forth towards Henry. It was more like a fan spreading towards the other wizard, its whiteness nature quickly made itself apparent, being freezing magical ice.

Tobias smiled in delight, he was enjoying this.

[Henry Hunter]

Henry Hunter was, if anything, just as delighted that the entire thing had worked as Tobias seemed to be. He was so caught up in the brilliant, burning success of his spell that he barely noticed in time that it had actually reached Tobias, who (Henry realized then with dismay) he'd entirely forgotten to educate on the proper use of the new channelers.

Luckily Tobias seemed to have figured it out at the last minute, and Henry twitched his fingers and the flames disappeared.

"This is amazing Henry!"

"I know!" enthused the marshal, trying not to look too pleased with himself. It was fantastic to be dueling with someone of high caliber; even as he readied himself for the next move he felt a little thrill.

"Glacius!" cried Tobias, summoning an icy wave that rushed through the air towards him, cracking and crackling as sharp shards broke off as it moved toward him, shattering over the ground in an ice dust. Henry twisted his hand in an expansive gesture to include the cobblestones around him, and then, palm up, clenched his hand into a fist and pulled, intoning, "Nari Petra!"

The spell - a basic one often used by construction workers to lay bricks magically from piles into neat stacks and rows - worked much more drastically than he'd intended. Huge chunks of stone tore themselves violently away from the courtyard all around him and shot upward, forming a churning, massive rocky ball in front of him. The ice shattered harmlessly into the make-shift shield, which whirled faster and faster until Henry realized he didn't quite have control over it at all. "Aha - duck and cover!" he advised in a hasty yelp, and dove down with a quick Protego! as the roiling ball of rocks burst outward, the large stones flinging themselves in every direction to shatter windows, chip exterior walls, and at the marshals themselves.

[Tobias Maldechor]

The massive ice sheet traveling at terminal velocity towards Henry was quickly halted by an impressive move from the wizard. He'd used a simple spell to counter it, he'd created a shield; but a rather unorthodox defensive move.

Henry had conjured the bricks to form a shield in front of him. The bricks came from practically anywhere in the vicinity and Tobias had to duck from some of the bricks that went flying to protect Henry.

However, just then he noticed something was not right. The bricks were swirling and spiraling; seemingly out of control. He got a confused look about his face that was dismissed by Henry's advice.

What had been a shield one minute, had turned into a multiple missile catapult; exactly, the bricks exploded in every direction. While Henry cast a Protego to cover himself from the shower of bricks, Tobias placed his hand in front of him and tried a different thing.

"Immobulus!" as Tobias cast the spell a wave of force reverberated around the Wizard and about ten feet from him. All of the bricks that had gone his way were suspended in the air, the rest well...they hit their targets alright.

Tobias let the bricks fall to the ground and, smiling he replied, "Its rather interesting Henry. The gloves seem to be very sensitive. A lot of magical energy is actually being harnessed through them." Tobias made a silent pause and then shouted at Henry, his face was all laughs.

"Aqua Eructo!!!"

a jet of cold clean water sprouted from Tobias' glove. The jet of cold water swirled and twirled for a second and that worried Tobias, but then the stream of water launched after Henry and Tobias began to laugh all the more.

[Henry Hunter]

When Henry was quite certain that the last of his rogue stones had gone, he peeked his head back up to witness a courtyard that was in far worse condition than when it had started. Besides the damage that he'd done simply by tearing it apart in order to create his stone shield, the courtyard was now peppered with shards of shattered glass and chips of rock. Not bad for a couple minutes of work, really!

He had just clamored up and regained his footing when Tobias cast his spell. The marshal raised a hand, flicking his wrist in a confident dismissal of what was clearly supposed to be the counter charm. When it didn't work, the jet of water hit Henry squarely on the chest, knocking him back into the wall and leaving him spluttering against the spray.

"Pah-pteh-pah-puh-Finite!" Henry gasped, the jet dying down at last. He pawed water out of his eyes with his free hand while his gloved one gestured somewhere in Tobias's direction. "Impedio Petra!"

Henry Hunter was a Builder by nature, a charmer who worked best by using the things that were already around him. It was his natural instinct to utilize the environment, so again it leapt to his aid - the stones he'd summoned before were quickly followed by new ones that wiggled themselves free of the ground and walls, and flew rapidly toward Tobias. They didn't hit him, no, in unbelievably fast progression they flew all around him, landing in a circle just a foot away from him on all sides, and then with remarkable speed began building up and up on top of each other, until it was quite clear that the intent was to encase Tobias in a stone tomb.

Henry wasn't worried about Tobias in the least. He had complete faith that the man would be able to take care of himself (or to tap out if the going got too tough).

While the stones were building, he began to re-enforce them to make them stronger, hoping to get the enchantment in before Tobias had a chance to blast the barrier sky-high. "Vallo Obviam Reductor!" He stated confidently, and then began a hasty list of Vallo Obviams followed by a number of other common Blasting Hexes that he wanted it defended against.

[Tobias Maldechor]

To Tobias' surprise the cold jet of water hit Henry furiously, the water got into his face, nose nostrils and even eyes. However, he finally managed to dispel the water magic. Tobias laughed so hard he just couldn't stop it. But then his water magic stopped and he saw the drenched Henry casting something up. The other wizard saw as some of the very bricks that had nearly destroyed the courtyard began to float.

Then in an instant, the bricks began to encircle him so fast he realized it was a trap when he was surrounded by bricks already at his waist level. He lifted his glove at the brick trap forming speedily around him, "Reducto!" a loud thud sounded but to no avail. Tobias half smiled at Henry, it was then that he noticed the other Wizard fortifying the brick trap.

"Bombarda!"

Nothing happened, and the bricks had him covered up to his chest.

"Bombarda Maxima!"

The bricks were already covering his face and Tobias couldn't see a thing except for the dark skies above the Furiae. "Ascendio!"

Just as the final bricks were about to completely cover him he was whisked away into the air, high, almost thirty feet up. Then as he began to descend slowly pedaling his way down he stretched his fingers good on his his spell glove hand and said; "Terrelandus Devorus!"

As Tobias cast the spell, the land beneath Henry began to crack, then a second later it was shaking and moving, until a huge gaping maw opened up, then another and another and another, all Henry needed to do now was fall into one of the crevices. Tobias smiled with the idea.

He was having the time of his life.

[Henry Hunter]

Just when Henry had thought he'd won, Tobias pulled some miracle out of his ass and shot upward and out of his ingenious trap. Drat! Henry didn't have time to look disappointed though, because the ground beneath him was very rapidly disappearing.

"Terrelandus Construxi!" Henry demanded of the ground immediately below him, dancing around a little to keep himself steady until the cracks pulled themselves together again. He waggled a gloved finger over at Tobias, as if he'd been naughty. "You won't get me that easily!"

He seemed a little breathless by now, and drew himself up rather dramatically before he declared, pointing a finger at Tobias's feet dramatically. The ground under him shimmered, and then disappeared, transformed into a perfect three-foot circle of eight foot deep salt water.

[Sicila O'Dair]

Alerted by the sound of rubble falling, Sicila got up from her chair in her office. What could it be now? She had been peacefully lying there - or at least as peaceful as Sicila ever was - and now she was being disturbed! Her ankles hurt, despite the potions Michael gave her, and she didn't feel like getting up. The twinges in her abdomen were beginning again, and she couldn't decide if it was just another pain thing or if it was her little body snatcher beginning to roll about. Either way, it was annoying as hell.

Standing, she popped her back, picked up her wand, and cast all her wards about herself just in case. She did this normally, but lately Michael, ever the worrier, had entreated her to add extras. So, by the time she walked out the door, Sicila was as protected from harm as any witch could ever be. Wand in hand, she marched through the hall with death on her face.

The scene she came upon was quite unexpected. So unexpected that, for a second, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Her beautiful courtyard was destroyed. Bricks and stones were strewn about willy nilly, some in piles, some broken and smashed. Her walls were missing pieces, her floor was covered in crevasses and cracks. There was glass everywhere, which made her glad she wore her sturdy boots this morning. There was suddenly a small ocean in the middle of the stones. But it was the two spellcasters in the middle that made her eyes burn with anger. Henry and Tobias.

"Protego!" she shouted, whipping her wand in a circle and encasing both in their own little shield bubbles, Locomotor mortis! Expelliarmus!"

She cast all the spells in rapid succession, all while striding forward in a manner most terrifying. Those....those....men! How dare they destroy her building? She would see to it that they both lived on grubs and berries in the forest for a month!

[Henry Hunter]

"Protego!" shouted someone in what was - as far as Henry was concerned - the far distance, and suddenly he was encased in his own personal protective bubble. Ho ho! How delightful! He looked up to find his mysterious benefactor, and - upon seeing Sicila - happened to lift his spell-gloved hand in a little wave that ended up completely inadvertently dispelling the remainder of her two spells.

Also, a window nearby vanished.

Henry didn't notice!

"Good afternoon, Warden!" Henry said cheerfully, as if Sicila had just happened upon Tobias and himself studying diligently in a lab. He seemed entirely oblivious to the rage etched over her expression. "Come to join in on the fun? I'm afraid I haven't got another set - prototypes, you know! Oh, but you're quite welcome to borrow Tobias's. You don't mind, do you, Tobias?"

I mean, obviously Henry wasn't going to give up his own set.