[Common Region] Kikka

[Bloodedge]

Gray's opponent had an opinion that differed from Gray's. It was her belief that he'd saved the best for last, which was yet to be seen. He could at least hold out hope that there was some truth in this, but not too much. Her offer to test the proverbial waters was joined by the grand unveiling of her magic affinity, which was - interestingly enough - water. "Was that on purpose?" he asked hastily to address the obvious pun. In the face of her opening attack, Gray held out both of his arms and used his own magic to release a blast of ice into the water bullet. This effort alone caused the water to freeze, and a second blast from Gray shattered itself and the frozen bullet. When next seen behind the diamond dust, Gray would be without even the jacket he previously wore, and he would also be wielding his grimoire with his left hand. "Kouri Mahou: Tengeki Hyouga!" he announced while swinging his right arm toward his opponent. The ground between himself and the blue-haired girl produced a mass of ice then and there, angling itself up into an icicle with its tip aimed at the girl's torso. While pointed, the tip of this icicle seemed more capable of causing blunt damage than piercing.

[Apollymi]

The young woman with the blue hair had the grace to look a bit abashed a red tint coming to her face as her pun was addressed. "In this case is it better or worse if it was on purpose?" she asked. Strangely enough, she was somewhat known for making a bunch of puns, but this was almost always an accidental occurrence. That being said, she didn't know if the lad would find this more or less appealing and as such aimed to find out, rather than answering directly if she'd done it on purpose. Still the young man had a rather hasty answer for her water ball, which came in the form of a freezing bit of air and then the shattering of it, turning it into diamond dust by the time the lad was done with it. "Sugoi!" she chimed, but the reasoning for this could be many things, not the least of which was the now exposed body of the muscular lad. "Do you always strip when you start using magic?" she asked, wondering if she should feel special or think strangely of the lad for his clothing abandonment. Beyond this his magic proper was unveiled with the use of his Grimoire after which he created an iceberg between them. She was not fast by any means, and as such found herself bluntly assaulted about the stomach. Even so, while bent over this particular iceberg she used her own glowing blue book. "Mizu Mahō: Akua Jaberin..." created in her hand a long javelin which she immediately let fly in the young man's direction aiming it at his left shoulder.

[Bloodedge]

"Uhh... I dunno. I'm no pun expert," Gray said as his icicle struck its target. To the question of whether he always stripped when using magic, Gray had no immediate answer. In fact, one could say he had no prior knowledge of this alleged stripping before it was mentioned. Just before he could even formulate a response for what was asked of him, or even recover from his most recent use of magic, his opponent staged an offensive which traveled back down the length of his icicle to pierce his left shoulder. "Ack! Kuso!" he exclaimed. Frankly, he hadn't expected a quick retaliation at all, and had actually been hoping to avoid one. Fluidity in offense was certainly not one of his strong suits, and that extended to his ability to shift between offense and defense as well. Taking a step back from where he was struck, Gray reached up with his right hand to grab the water javelin and freeze it, both removing any future threat it presented, and sealing his wound. "Kouri Sousei Mahou: Kourudo Ekusukaribaa!" Since his enemy in this battle had this obvious edge against him, Gray decided to make use of the physical abilities he'd given himself because of how his magic manifested. His grimoire glowed brightly as two long swords of ice formed in his hands, both presenting the sharpness and durability of a steel weapon while also boasting the ability to trail large amounts of ice in their wake. A freezing mist was around Gray during the activation of this spell, and as it began to clear, one could note that he had been reduced to wearing a pair of heart-patterned boxers.

[Apollymi]

The response to her bit about whether or not pun making was good, there was nothing but another one to fall out of the girl's face. Again, not necessarily on purpose, but this was simply how she spoke. "Well, I'll go with the flow then... and see how it turns out," she said in all seriousness. There wasn't any response to her question about his stripping, but she did indeed make contact with her most recent attack, giving her a chance to recover and remove herself from the iceberg she was upon. "Sugoi! It's going to be difficult with you freezing everything I do to you..." she commented absently. Of course, soon after he'd taken care of himself, she found him using yet another spell, this one led to the creation of a couple of swords, which was rather interesting, aside from the very obvious secondary effect. Her face turned a bright shade of red and she tried not to look directly at the lad now in nothing but his boxers. "Um, seriously... why are you in your underwear?" she asked doing her hardest not to allow her gaze to wander.

[Bloodedge]

A deep exhale followed the creation of two ice swords, and Gray still didn't seem conscious of the fact that he'd discarded even more clothing. A second reference would not be missed. He couldn't even think for a moment that this pun was unintended. "Well it's gonna be difficult if you keep bouncing back from my attacks. Let's go then," he said. No further time was wasted before Gray dashed forward, traversing the icicle of his own creation en route to the blue-haired girl. A counterclockwise spin occurred once he was in range, first resulting in a horizontal slash using his injured left arm, then a stronger slash aimed from his enemy's left shoulder to right hip using his undamaged arm. Still, he didn't seem to care at all about his state of undress.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that she still wouldn't be given an answer about his state of nudity not that it seemed to matter much to him. In fact, the more pressing issue of her day was his rather sudden approach with two ice swords in hand which he held while traversing his original iceberg enroute to her. His spin came with swiftness and without the hesitation that bouncing between different forms of magic had initially shown in him. 'Of course,' she thought as she was left to deal with the coming slash from his once injured arm. This made contact, but the one that came next she moved with managing to take several steps back to clear it with a bit of a frown on her face. "Yare yare, you're a bit of a hard counter for me... those swords are freezing," she stated. Soon after though something strange would occur as she turned the pages of her book to a different place. Upon reaching it she cast a spell, "Mizu Sōsei Mahō : Kairyū no Su," Upon doing this the girl released a massive bit of water around herself, aiming to create a giant dome of water with spiraling whirlpools shifting around it. Feeling relatively safe within it, she went on to turn the page of her book preparing something else entirely for Gray potentially. She'd gone on the defensive, but this was mostly due to being unable to combat the young man on the basis of his advantage to the kind of fighting she normally did.

[Bloodedge]

"That's good for me. The whole point is to put on a show, right?" asked Gray, who would have no complaints about a chance advantage in a battle meant to showcase his magical abilities and decision-making. After taking one of two strikes, his opponent went on the defensive with a barrier of whirlpools from her grimoire. Gray was no expert on barriers and the like, but he could easily tell this was not something he would be able to easily overcome with his frozen swords. Even so, he had to press onward. His left arm had already been weakened, so he chose to press the sword that hand held against the barrier, reducing the sword to a tool aiming to freeze an opening into the barrier over time.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Gray had to say that this bad match up was the point, putting on a show would make it good for him. She couldn't agree more. "I suppose, that is very true, still... I guess I am doing more than my part, showing how I deal with something like this," she said with a small smile forming on her face while turning the pages of her Grimoire. "Though to be honest, at this point I think we'd make a better team than pair of enemies~" she chimed as she watched her barrier weaken from the outside. It was going to take about thirty or so seconds, but it was all the time she needed to unleash her next attack from its safety. "Mizu Mahō: Sājingu Weibusu," she said as she placed her palms against the ground. This would lead to a giant surge of water which built up before her and aimed to completely overcome this lad should he break into her space. Even if he didn't the water would have a much easier time surging outward than he would have breaking in. She seemed to have quite a bit of magic power to spare in using such wide attacks choosing to overcome her physical disadvantages against the lad with sheer force.

[Bloodedge]

Gray couldn't argue that he could see more teamwork coming out of this match-up than aggressiveness, but now was not the time to be bothered by that. The fact of the matter was, they were now fighting to earn a place among the Magic Knights, where life would only begin for many who sought the title. If they both made it to be Magic Knights, perhaps this notion would see the light of day, but not now. For now, Gray had to deal with an attack being mounted while he continued his attempt to break through the barrier. Just when he was beginning to think some progress could be made to break the barrier, he was struck by a surge of water from the other side of the barrier itself. He was washed away without much of a chance to even fight back, but the ice sword in his right hand being stabbed into the ground allowed him to at least prevent being blasted too far from his opponent. At the end of it all, he pulled himself against the current from about 13 meters away. "Woah... chill out! This is a little bit much..."

[Apollymi]

"Chill out? Now who is making puns?" she laughed from within her barrier as the young man stuggled his way back from several meters away. She had to give him an extreme amount of credit, people with weaker bodies would have been completely blasted away by that. She couldn't help but be in awe of him whether he also made bad puns or not. Be that as it may there was still the problem of having to deal with the lad potentially breaking through her barrier and it was sort of disadvantageous to be a sitting duck in these kinds of situations. She seemed to be exceedingly safe in this moment, still there wasn't much else she could do without having to deal with the problems of a direct confrontation. 'I still can't deal with him directly, if I take down this barrier I am kinda screwed...' she thought to herself. At this point she had no choice but to wait and see what he would do and try to counter from within the safety of her barrier appropriately.