A Teacher of War

Jake sighed at the way Pyrrha seemed to click with the demon of war. Of course, he had suspected as much. Both were fighters. And one wasn't him. That seemed to be enough for the demon lord to like anyone. But he was more focused on the fact she was shredding her extra clothing, plopping it on the floor and leaving Jake more annoyed then he wanted to be. Why... Right. Pyrrha. Of course.

If the two of them were going to fight, then it seemed today's session had ended sooner then he had hoped. All because she came to him, with a misguided hope that Ann had put her trust into him on a level he yet to have seen yet of the young girl that was Ann. Dropping the ball and walking to his bag, he had planned to ignore any of what the demon lord was saying, till she posed a question to the two of them.

What was the purpose of this training.

What was his purpose to train. He already had an answer didn't he, much like Pyrrha, who was able to answer with earnest right away. To get stronger. But her purpose was to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger. His... His was to get stronger because he didn't want to be low. He didn't want to be dismissed easily. He wanted to hit anyone who considered themselves above everyone else. And he wanted that hit to hurt.

Narrowing his eyes, he turned towards Madeline, almost a smile faintly appearing on his face. "To get stronger!" His words were true. Truer then the fact he wanted to get to know Ann more. Truer then his want to know exactly what he was in the world the two of them shared. Truer then wanting to get the trust that Madeline had hoped the two shared. He wanted to get stronger. So he could show everyone. That he was here. And he was a threat.

Well that was a pretty bland answer, from the both of them really. It made the queen tilt her head. Her expression was a mix of confusion and disappointment. She was half expecting to hear something from Jake about being stronger for Johanna or something. There was more to it, she knew it. It’s what made her such a good goddess after all. Her intuition was one of the key factors in forging so many contracts. That same intuition could work her as well. “Surly that isn’t it. You both have to have some sort of motivation. Especially to dedicate time out of your lives to the cause.”

Madeline now found herself with her arms folded across her chest. She stared at the two teens like a disappointed mother. “Let me ask you another question. What do you plan to do with power? What happens when you obtain the strength you’re striving towards?” It was a serious question. Power without direction or purpose was dangerous. And to just get strength and then not know what to do with it. Or have no direction in which to focus it was a bad deal.

The question posed by the queen actually got Pyrrha to think. The first part was easy. She just wanted to be the strongest fighter ever. It was the second part of the question that made the Aeteran question her motives. What would she do with all that strength. Was there a finite ceiling to her power? If there was, then what would happen if she reached it? She always enjoyed a good brawl, but if she became to strong she could see how she’d sort of lose her identity. She had to have something else to strive for. Something else to focus that power on. “I…I want to get stronger so that what happened on my home wont happen anywhere else.” she answered. Her enthusiastic and wide eyed expression became serious.

Madeline returned the answer with a smirk and a nod. So the little warrior had a noble heart after all. That was good. And it didn’t take her long to come up with an answer, which was a bonus. It didn’t explain what the alien would do once they reached their peak, but it answered the why, and that was enough for the goddess. Now all she needed was the boy’s answer.

It seemed the simplicity of their answers was not enough. She wanted to know why and how that power they both strive to achieve would be used. He suspected she only asked him because of her self claimed title of a war goddess. Power was her neighborhood.

Pyrrha was first to answer, and even her answer gave Jake slight pause. Her, an alien, suffered a fate not so alien to many of this world, and she wished that such a fate never happened again, not if she could help it. Seems she had more then the purpose to get stronger. The purpose to get stronger for everyone around her.

But him. He had no answer that pleased him. A direct answer would not be beneficial for him, for he was sure Madeline was on her last legs with him. To say he wanted to get stronger so he could beat her, would be both an annoyance, or a challenge, and he wasn't sure if she would relish it, or laugh at him. He wasn't going to take that chance. So no, he had no initial answer.

Yet every other thought after was met with a withstanding no. He had no answers. He had no answers he liked. All he had was no. No, no no no no no no. He had no until he snapped. He couldn't say no anymore. "I want to get stronger... So the next time I see the demon lord Malphas, I can break both his arms and legs like he broke mine. I want to get stronger, so I break more then the carapace of the armor of that woman that bled me when I fought with Lorelei. I want to get stronger, so I can make that Nephalem bend to her knees like she made me." These three events were one of many. Many battles he had endured, many battles he had walked away from, broken, in pain. Defeated. And they had no meaning to anyone in this room but him. And yet they were why.

"I need. To get stronger. So that I can fight. Whoever I need to. And when I do. No matter how much more powerful they are then I right now. I can beat them into the ground. No matter who. No matter what." He didn't just want to get stronger. No... He needed too. There were too many people, far more powerful then he. And that. Needed. To. Change.

The alien’s reason was noble and slightly unexpected. Jake’s was greatly unexpected, and to tell the truth in concerned the queen a bit. The boy didn’t seem like the vengeful type. Sure he fought with a chip on his shoulder, but that answer was very unfitting. “So on one side we’ve got the protector, and on the other, we’ve got a matter of vengeance. Not shocking or surprising. I’ve dealt out countless contracts for people with the same virtues.” letting her arms fall to her side, Madeline would give a simple nod to Thalia.

The little demon would retrieve the queens jacket off the ground and then make her way to the side of the warehouse. Meanwhile, Madeline positioned herself so that both Jake and Pyrrha were in view. “I might have a temporary solution to your problems, or at least something that the two of you could make use of.”

Pyrrha’s eyes lit up. This woman, no, this literal goddess was going to help them out. It was almost to good to be true. And right about now, Madeline knew Jake would be thinking of someway to undermine her here. “Relax child. I’m not going to make you sign away your soul or anything…..As much as I’d like to. Instead, I’d like both of you to fight me first. At the same time.” she said looking first at Jake, possibly cutting him off before he refused her help, and then to the Aeteran who’d most likely be upset at having to do a tag battle rather than solo combat.

The demon queen would be right to. Pyrrha’s shoulders did a slight dip out of sadness. She really wanted to test her strength against an actual god, but she wanted to do it solo. Having to team up with Jake just seemed unfair. Especially if they somehow won. The victory just wouldn’t be the same. Pyrrha would take a deep breath. Her blue eyes locking with the demon’s. A simple nod was all she gave. While she didn’t like the idea, she had to play along. The queen said she could help the two get stronger, but only if they fought her. Pyrrha was willing to swallow her pride for the chance to become stronger.

Vengeance... Jake hadn't really thought of it like that... Was it vengeance? All they had done was hurt him, and got away. Was that really worth the word vengeance? He just wanted to beat them down. Be better then them. And anyone else that got in his way... Or the way of those he cared about.

But it was the demon lords word choice that kept him silent as she spoke, explained her little idea. Even as she made sure that any retort, any backtalk he could think of would be stopped, he had none to give. Not now. Not when he was beginning to understand what it was. After all, he had already done this before.

Back on the roof with Ann, who was still in the process of acceptance. She had started fighting her daughter, to the point where Jake couldn't just stand back and watch. She was so much more powerful then the two of them, yet fighting her had proved to require more strength that they could pull, just not till it had happened.

And now he was getting a rematch. Only this time, he had better understanding of his power, and after the several weeks he had spent with Pyrrha, training his reactions, his style... He was happy with this. The crack of a smile appeared, growing bigger as Madeline finished. Him. Pyrrha. Against her. In some way. It almost seemed unfair compared to last time... Maybe. They could really pull a serious touch to the woman's ability. And maybe. He'd get even stronger because of it.

"This... I like this." Jake let out before he realized and yet he didn't mind, his smile matching his mood, his tone. He was ready for this. Training was on, and it was going to be more hands on then he had ever imagined. And he was too slow for that to matter.

Almost like a switch his need to be faster took over his mind. He couldn't face Madeline as himself. He couldn't face Madeline in this base form. He was not strong, nor fast enough... But the first form was. Having took a step forward, his next step would be right next to Madeline, his body in the air, skin a dim red as he let loose a kick at her side, his smile still remaining as he aimed it at her left, leaving the right to Pyrrha.

“Wait! Here? Now?” Thalia tried to interject, but it was too late. Jake was ever so eager to make the first move. “Oh geeze here we go.” the tiny hunter said, rolling her eyes and trying to find anywhere she could stand without being in the path of danger. Things were going to get hectic very quickly. Jake had fought Madeline before, and while she enjoyed fighting, there was a difference in her style when she was looking forward to a fight, and when she wasn’t.

Pyrrha was definitely not expecting Jake to make the first move. She had been more than mentally prepared to open this thing up, but seeing the young man rush in head first made her do the same. Deep down Pyrrha knew that this woman, this goddess, was stronger than the two of them. And naturally the situation would call for her ascended form. Pyrrha had swallowed her pride one to many times today. She was going to fight this fight the way she wanted, and that included not using her ascended form until absolutely necessary.

The whole thing almost seemed to happen in slow motion for Madeline. She read Jake’s initial movement and figured the Aeteran would soon join. Raising her arm just slightly, she’d use it to absorb the blow from Jake’s kick and ultimately block it. At the same time, her eyes would flash over to Pyrrha who was flying through the air, and leading with a punch. The demon queen’s metal arm would shoot up and catch the girl by her fist. Twisting her body slightly, Madeline would swing Pyrrha into Jake, essentially using her as a weapon to potentially batter the boy.

At the same time, she’d use her momentum to rear her right arm back. An orb of black energy forming in her palm as she relinquished her grip on Pyrrha and brought the ball of energy down on the alien, and Jake if she had managed to hit him with the girl or not.

As his kick connected, Jake had a moment to remember. First form was faster, yes, but he still wasn't strong enough to do enough damage. She had blocked it however. If he could.. His thoughts were stopped as Pyrrha came into the side of his vision, attacking without much effect ether before being used as a improvised weapon by the demoness to attack him.

No way to move out of the way, Jake decided that this fight had no place for being polite. Twisting as Pyrrha came his way, the boy grabbed onto her stomach and waist with fast movements, before pushing off the alien, flipping him over the alien battering ram and away from their foe.

But as soon as he landed he was already kicking off the ground towards her. Red bits of energy like lighting bouncing off his skin as he moved. He couldn't use the second form yet. Used too much energy too quickly. He needed to wait till he could get a true hit in. But still, he moved with power and speed as he went to ram the woman away from the alien, magenta like eyes scanning the gym for tactical advantage as he did so.

Jake seemingly defied all logic and physics. Madeline could give him that. It was quite impressive how he somehow managed to get himself up and over both Madeline and Pyrrha. He only had one place to go from there, so Madeline wasn’t immediately concerned with him. Her attention for a brief moment was on the Aeteran. The ball of black energy was meant to smash into the girl and explode, but she was quick. Her hand would shoot up to meet the demon queen’s. Pyrrha managed to hold off Madeline’s attack for a brief moment.

The Aeteran was a lot stronger than Madeline had given credit. It didn’t mean much in the long run except that Madeline could step up her game a bit. With her focus on Pyrrha, Madeline knew Jake would try to approach her from behind. As though she were some common enemy with blind spots, Madeline was partially insulted by the boy’s lack of creativity. A series of black spikes would erupt out of the ground right in front of the boy. The extended in both directions making a makeshift crescent shaped wall that blocked of Pyrrha and Madeline from the boy. Madeline had effectively given the boy only two ways to advance now. He either jumped over the spikes or ran all the way into Madeline’s field of view.

While Madeline waited for Jake to make his move, she’d arch her arm back and drive the back energy ball down on Pyrrha once more. This time when Pyrrha’s arm shot forward, something happened that Madeline was not expecting. When the orb contacted Pyrrah’s palm she seemed to just absorb it. “I knew you were hiding secrets from me!” she said with a slight smile.

“You’ll find I’ve got plenty more tricks up my sleeve!” Pyrrha retorted before attempting to headbutt the queen. When their heads collided it was the young alien that recoiled. Her free hand instantly going to her forehead to rob the sore spot.
“I’m not going to lie. That’s one of my favorite things to do to.” Madeline said in response to the girl’s attack. Her knee would then explode upward, catching Pyrrha in the cut and taking some wind out of her sails. Madeline would then use her grip on the Aeteran to lift her up slightly, before hitting Pyrrha square in the jaw with a heavy right hook.

Pyrrha would skid several feet backward, but would maintain her footing. She wasn’t going to get knocked off her feet by a punch like that. Rubbing her jaw slightly, Pyrrha’s gaze looked with the queen. “I’ve been hit harder.” she tried to gloat to the goddess, only to have it thrown back in her face. “Good I’m glad. I aint out here to try and kill you two.” Hinting that she was pulling her punches despite her aggression.

Seems his ram had a few complications. A spike wall being one of them. Was he still too slow? Did he really need to up his game? Seems so. Planting a foot on the ground, Jake pushed and shot up to the roof, flipping the way he always did with a move like this, with his feet connecting to the roof, he had less then a second to make his next move and figure how everything was playing out.

And given that second, he started to focus more of his energy, just gathering it at this point as he kicked off the roof with a thunderous crack, shooting not towards Madeline, but just ahead of her while flipping himself again so that he landed on all fours, he stayed rather then attack like he had planned. No... He couldn't just attack like that. As proven, the woman was a fighter. And she had magic. Annoying magic powers. Attacks from the back, her blind spots would only cause her to use them for defense.

But he was going to attack, dashing towards the demon at an angle while still low to the ground, he would get close to her before sliding back to the right with a push from his hands and feet before using his hands to hold himself in place while he lifted his legs from the ground to attack. He would attempt to swipe the woman off her feet with his own, before turning once more so that he could attempt to perform a upwards kick with both feet at her, pushing off the ground as he did so. Showing that he still held onto a gymnastic like style to his fighting.

Yes, maybe he should try to communicate with Pyrrha, it was in his head, every second of this fight. But fighting together was a whole different story to training against one another. They had no plans, no combos. He could only hope that his attacks offered an opening, where her attacks would offer him an opening. But that was for next. Not now.

So it was up and over just like she had thought. Didn’t really take foresight to see that one. The demon queen had only left the boy with two options. Madeline was too smart to know that Jake was going to charge in at her eventually. His little pause did nothing to faze her. The demon goddess of war had already began to move away from the boys attack. “You’ll have to be more creative than that darling!” She put enough distance between them that all his flailing wouldn’t end up reaching her. As she slid back, Madeline’s right hand would reach back, she had managed to put herself close to the black spikes she had summoned to manipulate Jake a moment ago. As her hand waved past the spikes, they seemed to flare up. As if responding to their master’s silent call.  

With Jake rushing in once again, Pyrrha thought that this would be the perfect time to coordinate with him in some way. Madeline had responded to his movement and it gave the young alien a chance to throw out an attack of her own. Seizing this opportunity, Pyrrha shot up into the air above Jake. Bringing both of her hands together quickly, at her side, Pyrrha would form a small ball of energy in the space between her palms.

Having put distance between herself and Jake, Madeline’s attention now focused on Pyrrha. The queen’s amber eyes tracked the girls movement and eventually shifted to the faint glimmer of light forming at the Aeteran’s side. Madeline was smart enough to know not to give her opponent any breathing room. And so, while it looked like Pyrrha was in the middle of forming an attack, Madeline would wave her arm towards the girl. The black spikes just a few feet behind the goddess of war, would rip from the ground and fly in Pyrrha’s direction.

Like a murder of deadly razor sharp crows, the spikes flew at Pyrrha. They’d end up hitting nothing but the air as Pyrrha used her speed to close the distance between her and Madeline.

Landing just about two feet from the queen, Pyrrha quickly thrust both of her arms forward, releasing all the energy she had been gathering there in a large beam. “Here’s a present for you!” Everything seemed to happen much faster than Madeline had anticipated. Once minute the girl was in the air, the next she was in Madeline’s face. Had this been a normal fight to kill, this is where Madeline might have put her speed to the test in an attempt to get around the beam and take advantage of Pyrrha’s blind spot. However, the intent here wasn’t to kill, that and it had been so long since Madeline had fought one of Pyrrha’s kind. The little Aeteran was even more special, it was an opportunity Madeline couldn’t pass up.

So instead of moving out of the way, Madeline would place her metal hand in the way of the beam. She had managed to halt its advance. Seeing this, Pyrrha grew a little flustered and would put more force behind the beam. This ultimately caused the end of the beam to explode, launching both Madeline and Pyrrha back several feet.

Easier said then done. Were the words he wanted to say, but could only think. When it came to the demon woman. She had an array of powers. From the manipulation of those shadows and ice. Her insane amount of strength and speed. Tougher then any nail and having lived for quite possibly hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of years, she had the skill and knowledge such an age brought. She had it all.

All he had was strength, speed and a whole lot of nothing else. Throwing things wouldn't help him. She'd bounce them off, and throwing things too dense for her to see though only to follow, she'd already assume all paths he could come at her and get around it. He was stuck.

Stuck. And left with one choice. Get faster. Stronger. He could do that, he was just... Jake tried to focus the energy, tried to bring it forward in that weird way it worked to make him stronger. Faster. The second form as he called it. He had estimated that this form, might be on level, if a little less then Pyrrha's base form. A shoddy estimate to make from being able to just handle her ascended form as he was. But his only one.

At least while he focused, Pyrrha was busy with Madeline. It gave him time. Time he was wasting. Why couldn't he just do this. He changed into the first form easily just as this bout started, so why was he having... He was focused. He wanted to fight and she gave him that chance. Now that it was taken, he wasn't that focused, driven. He needed a focus. Maybe a thought... Or a word.

It was then the explosion happened, the whiplash of the force pressing against him, his eyes closed as his red vision came on. Pyrrha and Madeline were pushed back. " Ahhh... Full Body two." The boy mumbled, trying to connect his power to the simple act of his words.

Surprisingly. It worked. His skin grew a shade deeper red while red sparks of energy like lighting bounced off his skin as she dashed to Pyrrha's side, having moved at roughly the same speed as she had. "Seems first is too easy. I should be a little more help now for a bit. Don't mind if I go first do you, just, follow quickly please." The boy asked, before kicking off the ground with a crack, moving almost like a blur towards the demon Queen as he pulled his shirt off and threw it at Madeline, before planting a foot and kicking to the side, flipping as his feet connected with a support beam, the boy shot off it again back towards Madeline.

Even then he'd fall short, just by a foot or so as he landed with a roll before coming up and jumping into the air with a flip, not as high as before, maybe only a foot above Madeline as his wings came out so that he could use them to boost himself back down towards her, a fist aiming for her head. She'd ether dodge or move to catch it. He just hoped Pyrrha was close behind with her own attack.

Madeline’s heels dug into the ground as the blast pushed her back. The little alien packed quite a punch. It made the demon queen’s heart race a bit. If this wasn’t for the purpose of training, Madeline might have actually gotten a bit more excited than she already was. As the smoke settled, Madeline’s eyes glanced down at her metal palm. A few wisps of smoke rose from it. Brushing the residue off of her hand, Madeline glared back into the cloud of smoke. Through it she could make out the silhouette of the Aeteran girl and Jake.

It was no doubt going to be the boys turn to attack. A smirk appeared on the queens face as Jake rushed at her. He was going to try to use misdirection on her again. She almost felt the need to yawn as Jake threw his shirt at her. She wasn’t even fazed by it one bit. Her glowing amber eyes tracked the boys movements and ignored the flying article of clothing. By the time Jake had kicked off the support beam, Madeline had caught the shirt. The queen had planned to use the boys tactic against him, but failed to bring her arm forward to throw the shirt.

She immediately looked to her left to find Pyrrha hugging her arm. The girl had a death grip on it and had dug down. Madeline’s arm wasn’t going anywhere. There wasn’t enough time to deal with Pyrrha and then react to Jake. Doing what she could, Madeline raised her right hand and used it to block Jake’s punch. To her slight surprise, the boy’s punched packed a bit more more this time around. It brought a slight smirk to her face.

The goddess’ fingers would quickly clampdown on the boys fist. She’d then toss Jake to one side. Not to forcibly. She just needed some space to deal with Pyrrha. Once Jake had been tossed aside, Madeline would twist in place, bringing up her right knee. She’d drive it into the young alien’s gut which would cause her to keel over. As she did, Madeline would grab the girl by her hair and chuck her to the side. “You two are in for a world of hurt if you don’t pick up the pace. Come on now! I thought you wanted to get stronger!” the proud queen would call out.

After being tossed aside like a rag doll, Pyrrha struggled to her knees. Her arms gripped her gut. It was like the queen was paying her back for the damage Pyrrha had caused with her beam attack earlier. Being the proud warrior that she was, Pyrrha was upset with the way she had been performing. The queen was right, they’d have to step it up. Rising up to her feet, Pyrrha began to concentrate on the energy coursing through her body. Balling her hands into fists and tightening all her muscles, Pyrrha hunkered down. A quick blast of air shot out from her followed by a sudden flare of energy that enveloped her body. “Alright. I guess you asked for it!” Pyrrha said before letting out an almost primal roar. The energy surrounding her body would grow more intense and turn a golden hue. Pyrrha had entered her ascended form.

The boy spun in the air and landed on all fours, sliding back a quite a few meters till his shoes were barely still together. All his jumping and pushing had been tearing them apart slowly... What did he care about that. What he cared about, was that despite her offer to teach them, she was still going easy on them. He still wasn't fast... Wasn't strong enough. To take her down.

Kicking his shoes off, Jake would rise to a stand and peel what was left of his socks away with his toes as he watched Pyrrha recover from her own attack, because she had been attacked. Madeline didn't consider him a threat. That almost made him snap. Almost. He felt... Rage.. Anger. Hatred and annoyance, yet he also felt... Shame. Was he not worth it. Was he ever going to be worth it! So in silence, he stood there, as Pyrrha ascended, as the world shifted to her rising power, he glared towards Madeline. "Full. Body. Red. Version three." He spoke, not loud enough that if one wasn't paying attention would notice, but the words and his focus on them and his power rose to his own shift in power.

His was not explosive, like before. No air seemed to shift from his mere presence. He didn't have a aura of power as far as he was aware. He could not make people bend to their knees. But his skin was now a deep shade of red, as if the skin was covered with blood, his eyes held no sense of the blue that belonged to the often naive boy, but a crimson red mixed with his heated look, a look that he wouldn't want anyone he cared about to even know of. All he felt was dense and hot, impossibly hot. Even his wings, there ugly grey color mixed with red flesh, wings he hadn't even remembered were there..

Red energy formed and bounced off his skin as he looked to the amount of equipment about. Equipment he had not touched simply because he had thought it'd do nothing. Because he had not wanted to destroy the things he had grown to love during his early years. Because he had not wanted to annoy Ita. He hadn't wanted to say anything, but for some reason, he couldn't resist what it was he wanted to say, what he needed. "Madeline. You'd better try to kill us. Otherwise. This was a waste of time." And he meant what he said, right as he used his greatly enhanced strength and speed to run to the equipment. Appearing there almost instantly, yet the floor had rumbled and shook, four footprints, distances away from each other were engraved into the ground, surrounded by a shear number of cracks, and with hands grabbing onto that equipment, he threw them at the demon, the war lord. The goddess.

He threw the balance beams, the work out bars, the vault benches, a stage, in quick and fast succession, each object causing a crack of sound as they rushed at the Queen, and followed by him, not even bothering to give the stage enough time to reach the woman as he punched though it in an effort to get at her. To get close to her, to throw punch after punch the way Pyrrha had taught him, all the while, some part of his mind making some effort to lessen the amount of force he put into his steps. A effort he might give up on all together.

A wide smile appeared on the goddesses face. This was what she was hoping for. She needed to disrespect the two teens enough that they’d stop playing around and would get serious. She had already know that Jake was holding back, as he hadn’t entered that form she had seen him use on during their rooftop battle. And She could tell the young alien had been pulling their punches. They gave off far too much energy in comparison to the power they were putting out. Madeline had to gauge both of them to be sure they could handle the ‘gift’ she wanted to bestow upon them.

Jake and Pyrrha both seemed to launch their assaults at the same time. As Jake darted over to the side of the warehouse he called out to Madeline. He seemed to think this was a waste of time. He simply couldn’t see the bigger picture. He couldn’t see that Madeline had partially done what she had set out to do. Draw out their true strength. But, Madeline wouldn’t be much of a goddess of war, if she couldn’t see that she could push these two a bit more.

The cunning queen had a strategy brewing. The more she seemed to ignore Jake, them more it seemed to enrage the boy. This in turn pushed him to try and make himself relevant. Meanwhile, the more she beat down on the Aeteran, the angrier she got, which fueled the race’s power. Madeline’s plan was to continue to ignore or annoy the boy, and beat down on the young alien as much as possible. Thing was, both were now much faster than Madeline had anticipated, the alien more so.

A sharp pain suddenly cropped up on the right side of the queen’s jaw. Before she had any chance to figure out what was going on, Pyrrha was in her face throwing a barrage of punches. As that was happening, Jake began to throw anything and everything in his reach at the queen. Unfortunately with Pyrrha so close, she was caught in the crossfire as well. Because of this, it gave Madeline the opportunity she needed to put some space between her and the Aeteran.

Jake then swooped in and began to throw his own barrage of blows. He would be a bit easier to swat away. After blocking several of the punches and dodging a few others, Madeline would unleash an omnidirectional blast of dark energy from her body. Which she hopped would push Jake back.

Jake followed close, each fist missing or being directed away. It only did enough to annoy him further, his resistance on restraint over letting go slowly crumbled till every step of his seemed to break the ground under them. One final dodge gave way to a counter attack by the warrior. A surge of dark energy coming at him. His brain reacted to the possible damage that would come from the dark energy before he even considered blocking or avoiding it.

So he jumped back, his wings throwing themselves in front of him, but even that would not be enough to stop the damage that got though. He had learned ever since his red energy had... Enhanced, it also weakened him to darker energies. He was already getting tired, damage wasn't going to help him. So he adapted. More correctly, his body, adapted.

His grey and red wings suddenly snapped, shifting and moving as the muscles hardened and bulged, bones snapped and mended and grew bigger till the wings were much bigger then before, like walls of flesh between him and the darkness, even it only did enough till the explosive force pushed them apart and his arms took the rest of the damage, but his wings remained as they were, lacking any feathers from before, they were just walls of muscle and flesh, bruised yet still looking strong.

To say, she had pushed the boy back for but a second, but thanks to his wings, he was already back to the offensive.

And they hurt, they hurt from their first construction, a feeling he wasn't use too, they hurt from the dark energies, along with his arms. But the pain was... Encouraging him. To not bull rush. He had a partner in this fight. Turning his red vision on, the boy jumped forward, before using his new wings and slamming the mounds of flesh attached to his back in front of him, hiding him, but allowing him to see Madeline though them, he could watch her move and adjust to such a movement, but rather then go around them, he lunged upwards and used the weights of the wings to flip and throw himself back down towards his foe, a heel coming down to slam down on her. In an effort to hurt the woman, but mostly to drive her into Pyrrha.

As he was moving, he didn't notice that his flesh seemed to be following suite to his wings, rumbling and shifting, muscles and skin acting as if something was moving under his skin. But then, his focus and his speed didn't give many chances for him or another to notice the small changes being made as the seconds passed.

Pyrrha was not a fan of having things thrown at her. This was especially true when she didn’t know said thing’s were being thrown at her. Granted Jake was really trying to hit Madeline the whole time, but the young Aeteran was the unfortunate victim of the boys attack. Being buried under all this equipment was eating into her precious ascension time. She only had a little while left, and after that she’d be no more than a dead weight. Letting out a small growl, Pyrrha’s aura would flare up, sending all the gym equipment flying off of her.

Madeline’s omnidirectional blast had succeeded in pushing Jake back. The fight was pushing Jake to adapt or at least his power. Seeing the sudden and unexpected change in Jake’s wings meant Madeline’s plan was working….maybe. The demon queen of Arcadia had just about seen all she needed to. The two teens were more than capable of learning a technique that could give them the boost. The power, they sought. Despite that, Madeline was having a small bit of fun with this whole thing. Why end it early.

Having been pushed back, Jake quickly went to work testing out or employing his transformed wings in combat. He used them as a makeshift shield to charge after Madeline. She wouldn’t let him get close, or at least she didn’t plan to. With a wave of her hand a wave of dark energy would flourish in the air, almost like a plume of fire. Sure enough the attack did it’s job, as Jake leapt into the air to avoid them. Madeline half expected the boy to use his wings to stay in the air, but he used their powerful muscles to drive himself downward, heel first, at the queen.

Madeline’s natural reaction was to leap backwards out of the way. The boy’s attack would leave him open for an attack after he wiffed. That would be when Madeline would attack, or at least it would have been if it weren’t for Pyrrha. Before the goddess had a chance to set her footing, she’d be rocked by a devastating punch. Pyrrha had used the window created by Jake, to catch the demon queen off guard and managed to land a solid blow square on the jaw.

Quickly trying to take advantage of the queen’s stumbling, Pyrrha attempted to rush in and deliver another heavy handed hook to Madeline’s face. Only this time her left hand would catch nothing but air as Madeline twirled away from the girl just as the punch was being thrown. The queen wasted little time in going on the offensive. As soon as Madeline came out of her spin, her right arm would rocket forward. Her fist connected with Pyrrha’s midsection instantly knocking all the air out of the girls lungs. In true savage fashion, Madeline would quickly grip Pyrrha by the collar and throw her with incredible force at Jake.