Maddalena rolls her eyes with a sigh and teleports next to Mallory using her shadows. “Any ideas? I know he said to think of what I can do, but right now… What I can do is limited compared to what I used to be able to do.” she points out, bitterly at the reminder.
"You could try to throw your blades and make them teleport back to your hand. Try doing that in quick succession, along with releasing lightning from your hands or something." Mallory says. "I'll attack him with various methods. Like he said, he's here to develop our abilities. He won't quit defense until both of us unleash something new." Mallory glances at RinRin, who is petting his cat. "So try to focus on that."
“I can do that.” she nods. “The lightning, however… I can call it, I just can't channel it that way.” Maddalena admits since that part of her power has been stripped away as well. “But if you're ready.” she shrugs twirling one of her knives around her finger.
"Let's go!" (piano lets go cat here) Mallory says, engulfing the clearing in smoke.
Maddalena spins on her heel to face RinRin, throwing a dagger at him in one fluid motion. Assuming he teleports away from the first, the second quickly flys in his direction when he reappears.
RinRin watches the dagger fly at him. He hold up his hand, like he's about to recite a pledge. The knife veers towards his hand. As fast as thought, he catches the dagger by the blade. The other dagger uselessly impales itself in a tree. Mallory descends on him from above, holding a sword. RinRin attempts to blocks the attack with the dagger, but it disappears. He dodges at the last second, as a dagger flies within an inch of his face. "Hm."
Maddalena calls back her daggers and throws them again, this time imbuing them with different elements on each throw.
Mallory assaults RinRin with a flurry of melee and ranged attacks, summoning knives to throw, swords to fall from the sky, waves of force to knock him off his feet.
RinRin dodges the daggers and counters several of Mallory's attacks before saying, "The teamwork is good. But tap into your inner demon. Both of you. Harness it. Allow it to release something new within you." He teleports out of sight into the ethereal realm. "Enough with straight-up combat. Let's see how you work together against a deceptive offense." He jumps out of the ethereal realm and kicks Maddalena in the leg, then disappears back into the ethereal realm.
Maddalena grunts as she stumbles from the kick before swiping her dagger at where he was. “You really don't fight fair, you know that?” she growls. “And, what you're asking; I can't do. Despite your powers, you are still a mortal. And since Mallory wants me to try to play this little game of “earning back” what was taken from me, even if I was able to use my powers in the way you are saying… I’m almost certain that if I did, I would be trapped as a mortal forever.” she points out. “Besides, I am more than able to fight but my title was of Thieves and Mischief.”
(hi ツ)
(hi!)
RinRin speaks, his voice echoing all around, "I can think of at least a dozen things that has to do with thieves and mischief that are more than just simple trickery." He dims the field. "Darkness." He summons a barrage of knives to fall from the sky. "Weapons." He summons clones. "Power in Numbers." He makes Mallory look like RinRin. "Disguise." He dispels it all. "And that's just thieves."
He teleports out, punches Maddalena in the shoulder, and disappears again. "USE YOUR HEAD."
“I’m well aware of that! Of all of those.” Maddalena yells back, rolling her shoulder from the hit and shakes her head. Was she really that out of touch with her own skills? Or was she just focusing on the wrong ones. “Perhaps I am thinking too small…” she admits to herself. Perhaps she had even begun to limit herself by unintentionally thinking more as a mortal. She loosened her white-knuckle grip on her daggers and sighed thoughtfully.
Mallory listens. She decides to follow Maddalena's lead and enters her mind. She trusts RinRin to not attack them during this. She reaches within herself. Suddenly she opens her eyes and screams, expelling a blast of force. Her eyes are pure black, with red irises.
RinRin appears from the ethereal plane after the blast. "Hm. Good, but can you maintain it long enough to launch a series of attacks? Maddalena, you still with us?"
Maddalena jumps in surprise at Mallory’s unexpected and powerful attack. “Yes, I am still here…” she answers, noticing her voice has an odd echo to it. Clearing her mind she reaches out with her powers. Locking her gaze on RinRin, she unleashes every element that she still has access to and channels it straight toward him. A barrage of earth, fire, ice, wind, shadow, water, and lighting.
When Maddalena sends the wave of power at RinRin, Mallory goes with it. She harnesses her power and flies towards him, headfirst, with knives in both hands, looking like she had gone insane.
(lemme do rin)
(of course)
RinRin freezes time just to see in more detail what they unleashed. He walks over to the wave Maddalena sent. A wave of dirt and rocks, a wall of flames, sharpened chunks of ice, fifty mile an hour wind gusts, darkness beyond simple shadows, so black it was almost purple, and a series of lightning strikes heading in the direction where he was standing. His gaze wanders to Mallory. Her eyes are pure black, with red irises. "Finally, you share that ability with me," he says, allowing her to hear without letting her know time is frozen. "You must learn to control it or it will overcome you." He sees she wields two multiforged Rinusa blades, but different, more customized. "You have created your own variant of what I created. Call them Malyara blades." he says. He returns to his position and summons a huge, singular Rinusa blade. "Soon you will learn to manipulate the blades, forging them into new blades of all sorts of different forms." he says. RinRIn unfreezes time and blocks the wave Maddalena summoned. He let the lightning continue so Maddalena wasn't hopeless. He morphs the blade into two blades identical to Mallory's except it was the original format. He exchanges with Mallory. Strike, parry, block, block, strike, feint, strike. He waits for another blast of lightning and redirects it towards Mallory. It hits her but she keeps going. "Good!" he laughs. He pushes Mallory back. She resists, but he succeeds. He swipes his arm from right to left, clearing the field of all obstacles. "Good." He teleports the three of them back to the bench. "I leave you with important lessons. I'll put them in your head. Until next time, sister."
Mallory nods. "Soon, I'm sure. I bid thee farewell, brother." He disappears in a flash of light.
Maddalena leans back against the bench, trying to catch her breath as the burst of power left her feeling lightheaded. “Is this sort of thing normal for you?” she asked Mallory once they are alone.
"What sort of thing?" Mallory asks, receiving the lessons from RinRin, and also another message about the blades still in her hands, though the black eyes had faded into just one red iris and a black outline in her right eye.
“All of it.” she groans. “Having a brother like that, the fights, your eyes changing.”