[Shieba]

Bentner had had enough time to get into the air, though he decided that this wouldn't be enough. He wasn't Morwena, who had constant practice in these things - he had been stuck in a fortress for the last six years without anyone but a few assassins coming close to him. He lacked dodging skills by now and not only because of his age. As such, he had to improvise.

Attacking the demi-god itself was useless, that much he knew, so he only had to buy himself enough time to avoid the attacks. The distance between them had luckily been big enough so that he had time to finish an illusion spell where he hovered in the air and then flew to the right while sending the illusion of him to the left. Bentner doubted that a deity could be fooled by an illusion, but maybe it would surprise Taxat enough to slow him down for a second, ensuring that Bentner could avoid the demi-god for sure.

******

Morwena noted quite satisfied that while the water had went through the demi-god, it had still stopped him, so that meant that he felt it at least in some way. This was good, it would help her.

Hovering only a bit above the ground now, Morwena felt the energy blast from behind coming, but had to concentrate on Taxat charging at her from above as well. Flying straight up to avoid the blow would bring her too dangerously close to the demi-god during the maneuver. Morwena narrowed her eyes. She was usually careful, but that was because her Dear wished her to be so. She herself liked to take a risk or two sometimes and if it would help her, maybe she should this time.

She had the wind spell readied, but she waited longer than she had done so far. If she didn't evade right away, Taxat would come straight at her - and with that towards his own blast as well. Morwena guessed that his own attack would either cause no damage at all to him or harm him more than she could and she was willing to take that chance. She had no idea if those flames of his mane were really burning, but if they were, she would surely feel that soon. Waiting until the last second, she only used her wind magic to fly to the left when the demi-god had almost reached her, hoping that his flames wouldn't burn her and his own blast would stop him, effectively hitting him more than hitting her. She did prepare for a few bruises, though.

[Jaykobell]

Taxat was pleased to see the old man avoiding his attacks. Soon enough, the deity felt that he could probably start increasing the difficulty. He was glad that the old man was starting to take this test seriously, and that he wasn't just endlessly talking. Taxat liked that much better than listening to Bentner explain uninteresting concepts that Taxat, personally, didn't care about at all.

The illusion was enough to fool Taxat, if only momentarily. The deity grinned at that spell; not too shabby, he had to admit. He stopped in his tracks and turned around, hovering in the air just like Bentner. From afar, the Frightmare drew his head back and built up energy from his mouth. When ready, the deity breathed a radioactive-green fire in Bentner's direction, which didn't cover much in terms of height, but it covered a huge area in terms of length, dashing forward like a wave.

~*~

For a moment, the deity thought Morwena would just let herself get hit. Was she already tired? Taxat wouldn't be surprised if the woman was already exhausted from the test. From the beginning, he didn't have very high expectations, although she had successfully surprised him. He would give her that much.

With him dashing forward so quickly, he thought he had her; but when he saw the woman dodge to the left, Taxat glanced in that direction before getting hit by his own blast. That attack, unlike Morwena's, seemed to hurt the deity physically, sending him flying away before Taxat started dropping down towards the ground slowly.

Once on the ground, the Frightmare regained his balance after a few moments and shook himself. The small bruises on his ghostly body disappeared when he shook them off and as he straightened himself. He humphed grumpily as he stared at the woman. "Enough," the deity said before stomping his hoof, and right then, Morwen's world went black for a split-second again.

When she came to, it was still only Taxat and Morwena, but they were definitely back in the real world. "You pass," Taxat said simply, but without granting her the power just yet. He had to finish testing the old man before he granted anything.

[ You can either drop Morwena's half, or you can have her talk to Taxat. It's up to you. ]

[Shieba]

Bentner was actually rather glad to get a wave of fire thrown at him instead of Taxat charging once more. He could deal with magic much better than with physical force, after all. Hoping that the god's fire behaved much like normal fire attacks, he summoned a strong wind, hoping it would at least stop the flames, if not even blowing them back towards the deity. Not wanting to risk anything and also to perhaps increase his chances to hit in case the wind did manage to throw the fire back, he also summoned a sphere of light which exploded in the air after a second - not doing any harm, but the flash was rather blinding. Using the light, Bentner decided to drop lower, hopefully avoiding the fire - he was temporarily blind as well and could only hope that the demi-god would be affected as well.

******

Morwena didn't even have the time to say or do anything before getting thrown back into the real world besides being glad that Taxat's energy blast hadn't hit her - the effect it had had on the demi-god had been enough to show her that this would have hurt her badly. Maybe that had been a bit too much of a risk...but hey, it had worked spectacularly!

She was really glad it was over, though - she had exhausted quite a bit of her magic. But she had passed! Morwena beamed brightly - her Dear would be pleased! But...where was her Dear?! A bit panicking, she looked around. He was the better mage of them, there was no way he couldn't be done yet! "D-dear?!" She looked at Taxat. "I- I am grateful! But where is my Dear?!" If she had passed, he would do so for sure as well without getting seriously harmed, right?

[Writing at least a bit for Morwena to keep her stats equal with Bentner's. Also, do the injuries from the fight carry over into the real world?]

[Jaykobell]

[ They didn't. I would've said so in the narrative, I just didn't want to write an enormous wall of text. :u ]

Now that was what Taxat wanted to see.

While the wind spell managed to push the deity's fire back, that didn't stop Taxat's attack for too long. The fire eventually gathered to a common point, building up in height, but losing in length, until it gathered into an enormous tower of glowing green fire. The tower tumbled forward, the fire seemingly charging on its own towards Bentner. Of course, it would've worked better had Bentner not summoned that flash of light.

Blinded, Taxat groaned angrily at the inconvenience. The fire wasn't sentient, it was still the Frightmare controlling it from afar; if Taxat couldn't see, he couldn't aim the attack. He went for another strategy, switching styles quickly. He separated the fire tower into countless little pieces of fire and showered Bentner with, literally, a rain of green fire. If Taxat couldn't see, then he would try to do things a different way. The rain wouldn't be painful per se, but it would certainly sting.

~*~

Maybe he should've just let her rot in her own head.

Taxat gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes at the woman. Thankfully, the wounds from the test hadn't carried over, but Taxat's patience with this woman was basically at an end. It wasn't about him having no patience, it was about Morwena being obsessively obnoxious.

He stomped his hoof again, making the ground tremble slightly. "Quiet!" he shouted angrily, glowing eyes staring straight at Morwena. "I will be done testing him when he proves his worth to me. A little more, and I would've turned him back for being so damn weak," the deity spat bitterly, making sure every single word would hit homebase with the woman. "Shriek obnoxiously some more, and I'll make sure you don't get anything from this entire thing," he threatened as he ruffled himself to try to regain some composure of some sort. He wasn't against talking, but he was against obnoxious shrieks.

[Shieba]

Bentner had barely managed to make out the tower and had already been worried how to deal with it while not being able to see well when it broke apart and rained down on him. Wonderful - and he wasn't allowed to summon a shield to simply block it all. Then again, wind had somewhat worked before and so, while certainly unable to push all the spread-out fire back towards Taxat, he maybe could at least keep it away from himself. That, however, probably was rather similiar to a shield, so he had to at least try something different as well.

He settled for trying to push away the fire coming right at him with wind and aiming water at the fires covering the area, trying to get out of the shower with his wind magic at the same time. Controlling three elements at once was rather difficult and left him with no time to deal with Taxat as well, so he could only hope he would get out of the fire, which also blocked his view of the deity, before the demi-god decided on another attack. In his haste, Bentner couldn't keep all fire in check fast enough and he did run into a few of the flames, but luckily, his hat protected at least his face and head from any sting that would hinder his concentration too much.

******

Morwena flinched when she got yelled at, but she simply couldn't believe it. "But my Dear is stronger than me! Far stronger! I am, in a way, still his student!" She was doing her best to not shriek, but talk more normally, but she still had to say something. Was Taxat testing her Dear in a different way? Maybe her Dear's test was more difficult than hers because her Dear was just that awesome? But well, the injury from her leg had disappeared, so hopefully, her Dear would be fine anyway. And he simply couldn't lose! "My Dear isn't weak. The whole kingdom we come from wants his head but no one can touch him." Maybe to a demi-god, all humans were weak?

[Jaykobell]

Taxat didn't like water all that much. It was the worst of the elements, in his case, since he felt like he was drowning every time water got anywhere near him. He shook his head to get his sight back from that inconvenient flash of light. He squinted, eyes tiny green slits, as he tried to locate Bentner. He had to give the old man credit for keeping up, despite Taxat's early expectations. He was fighting back full force; the deity liked that.

Taxat waited until the rain had settled down before resuming his attack. Most of the rain was repelled by the wind and water magic, along a few droplets had managed to slip past the cracks of the spells. Summoning fire energy at his mouth again, Taxat started darting down towards Bentner, and during the charge, the fire from his mouth slowly started to cover the Frightmare completely.

~*~

While Taxat wasn't all too pleased about being stuck with having idle conversation with Morwena, he figured it could always be worse.

He narrowed his eyes at the woman as she continued to speak so annoyingly about her "Dear"... Taxat grimaced at the word. How disgustingly... disgusting. That's all he could think of. "I don't care about the kingdom you come from," the deity stated bluntly, genuinely uninterested in their background or history, or what-have-you. "You asked for power, and I'll give it to you if you can prove you're worth it. Your..." he grimaced again mid-sentence, "... friend, is an old man. I'm not sure how you're expecting him to last all that much longer." Unless those folks from this other realm, or whatever, lived longer than the Evelonian humans. But again, Taxat didn't care about any of that. "Just pray that he doesn't croak during the test."

[Shieba]

Bentner was glad to have found some sort of battle style by now; he could do quick dashes easily if he managed to deal with the attacks hurled at him with magic. His robe had gotten a few burns from the fire-rain, as well as his hands, but otherwise, he was glad to see he had managed to pull through this attack pretty unharmed as well. It was a bit surprising that the demi-god gave him so much time to recover his ground again...maybe Taxat didn't like wind or water much, given his burning mane?

Water seemed to be indeed the best approach again for now, granted that Bentner saw himself under attack from basically a living fireball now. However, Taxat was charging from above and Bentner was now close to the ground. Bentner remembered how Taxat had walked through walls when he had arrived, but he had also knocked pebbles around before he had started to charge for the first time. So the demi-god could obviously affect the solid ground... Deciding on something, though it took him a few precious seconds, Bentner summoned two balls of water before hurling them at Taxat, making the first explode close to the demi-god to shower him with rain while keeping the second intact as a rather huge projectile. Maybe that would steal the demi-god's sight again for a moment, together with the fire he had hurled himself in. Hoping that, Bentner then also quickly summoned earthern spikes forming from the ground and creating a wall between him and Taxat before trying to get away with his wind magic again. All the spells had taken some time, though, and if neither the water nor the earth would stop Taxat, he probably would get hit.

******

"Friend?! Oh, no, no!" Morwena shook her head, shocked. "My Dear is a lot, but not my friend. He is my master, teacher, owner, a bit of a partner when it comes to magic research and, if I'm lucky, sometimes my lover. But never my friend. 'Friend' indicates an equal bond and I could never be equal to my Dear! And he's not that old and in pretty good shape, too." She was worried now, though - was the demi-god testing her Dear in a way that would make him prone to dying?! "I am not a full human and my soul is bound to my Dear. If he dies, I will die with him automatically. But I don't need to pray, for I know how strong my Dear is."

Well, if Taxat thought that Bentner talked much, he maybe would be surprised when he would realize that when it came to the topic of Bentner, Morwena could talk ten times as much.

[Jaykobell]

Now that the old man was fired up and fighting back, Taxat had to admit he was genuinely surprised by Bentner's abilities. He could handle multiple elements at once, and now that he was using his magic, Taxat found the old man fairly entertaining to battle.

The deity stopped when the first ball of water popped so close to him. He stopped and shook himself wildly from the water that splashed through him, feeling like he was about to drown. Coming down as rain, it also took Taxat some time until he could shake all the water off and away. By that time, he was starting to charge again, engulfed in flames once more, until he saw the spikes rising up from the ground. He had to stop abruptly to avoid literally crashing into a solid rock wall; and he had to keep an eye on that other water bubble Bentner had summoned. But that wouldn't be necessary.

The deity disappeared from the battlefield to reappear on the ground behind Bentner. The horse humphed before stomping his hoof. "Enough," he said as Bentner's world went black for a split second.

~*~

What, the woman talked like a parrot too?

The deity narrowed his eyes at the woman, just about this close to letting her leave this cathedral without any power for the taking. He just ignored the woman, not interested in debating, or even discussing, the matter at hand. Her language and what she was saying was baffling to Taxat, and as such, the less he would pay attention to her, the better. "I thought I'd already said that I don't care," the deity mentioned, but that was all he was going to say.

And then, once Morwena was done talking, the world went pitch-black for a split second, before Bentner and Morwena were both in the same room again. Both unharmed, with no injuries left from the tests.

[Shieba]

Well, the demi-god surely wasn't much fun to talk to and also pretty rude. Morwena was frowning, but before she could say anything else, everything went black once more. For a second, she thought that for some reason, she had angered Taxat so much that he wanted to fight again, but then she realized that she was still in the real world and that her Dear was back as well. "Dear! Oh, Dear!" Incredibly relieved, Morwena couldn't help herself and latched onto Bentner's arm for a second. "I'm so happy you are back! I passed, Dear!"

Bentner blinked, still half in a offensive stance since the last thing he had seen was Taxat suddenly appearing behind him. When he found Morwena by his side again, he relaxed and then freed his arm from her. "Very good, Morwena. That pleases me." He sighed when Morwena beamed like the sun, more than happy to hear that. But then, a thought occured to him. "You have been back earlier, then?" She had obviously gotten her result already.

"Yes, Dear! And I was a bit worried because I hadn't thought that I would pass and still be back earlier than you since you are so much better than me." Morwena, still ridiculously happy, just stayed as close to Bentner as she knew she was allowed to be, so happy to have him back with her.

Bentner sighed again. If she had been back first, Morwena had probably caused a ruckus when she hadn't found him back yet. He turned to Taxat and bowed his head. "I apologize if the woman bothered you. I can imagine she has." Hopefully, Morwena hadn't upset the deity too much.

[Jaykobell]

Now that they were all back in the real world, Taxat wasn't really surprised to see Morwena fret so much over Bentner. The deity grimaced out of disgust and disinterest at their reunion. In that aspect, he could probably relate to Bentner. If something was constantly glued to him like this, the deity would probably go insane, literally.

The deity stomped his hoof on ground, just enough to make the sound resonate and echo throughout the broken cathedral. "Silence," he asked the two of them, his presence starting to change into something more intimidating and powerful than earlier. "You prayed to Ithina and were refused. Following suit, I granted you the benefit of the doubt in order to obtain the power you desire." His mane grew larger and the symbols on his body started to glow intensely, to a level no human could probably reach. One would think that wasn't the same deity who'd tested them; his presence and energy were entirely different.

Taxat stomped his hoof on the ground once, and suddenly, glowing green sigils appeared him. "Bentner," Taxat first called as he stomped his other hoof down. As he did so, the same glowing sigils appeared under Bentner. "Morwena," he called after, once again stomping his hoof to make the sigils appear under Morwena. They had an eerie feel to them, but they didn't feel threatening or alarming. Energy in its purest form flowed from the sigils, enveloping the both of them with an overwhelming feel of power. This was but a silver of Taxat's real strength, flowing through the both of them. "I, Taxat, the Sumpter of Difference, grant upon the both of you this power coined Elusive Foe by the Evelonian mortals," the deity proclaimed as he reared on his back legs briefly before stomping both hooves on the ground. It shook under the pressure, and the sigils reacted accordingly by glowing brighter and filing both Bentner and Morwena with the power they'd requested from the deity.

Once that was done, the sigils disappeared into thin air, leaving Bentner and Morwena with their newly-granted power. Taxat, as for him, was still standing where he'd been the whole time, staring at the two of them. "Our business is done."

[Shieba]

Both Bentner and Morwena stayed silent during the granting of power, first observing the sigils with great interest and then feeling the power flow through them. It was a rather overwhelming feeling and when the sigils disappeared, Morwena looked at her hands, as if expecting to see some sign of the power on her own body now. Bentner needed a few moments to adjust as well, but then figured that he would have more than enough time to do so in a bit anyway and instead bowed to Taxat. "Thank you greatly for this - for giving us this chance and now granting us this power!" Bentner glanced at Morwena.

"Oh!" Morwena understood at once and bowed as well. "Thank you kindly, indeed! I am very grateful and happy that you deemed me and my wonderful Dear worthy of this!"

Bentner gave her a short nod and then straightened again. Taxat had made it pretty clear that he wanted and expected them to leave now. "Very well. We shall take our leave, then. Morwena?" He waited until Morwena finished bowing as well. Hoping that they were indeed doing as expected since he wasn't sure if Taxat had lowered the shield around the cathedral, Benter turned to leave, Morwena, as always, right next to him.

[I kinda assumed the cathedral isn't glowing anymore and the shield is gone? I wasn't suuuure, but it sounded like Taxat wanted them gone, so. o3o And yaaay, thanks so much~ <3]