Light vs Dark

"Tether." 

Vincent swung the sword at Gunther, who blocked it with his gauntlet. The two were in a lock as light pushed against shadow.

"Today I shall show you why my title is 'The Lightbearer!'" Vincent yelled, his free hand glowing with light as he punched Gunther in the face.

Gunther grunted and swung his own fist, making Vincent drop his sword and jump back. Before he could continue attacking, the sword of light exploded, burning him with light.

Gunther hissed in pain, expelling shadows from his body that rushed towards Vincent, who immediately dodged to the side. 

"Tracklight!" Vincent cast another spell, multiple balls of light appearing and beginning to orbit him. He leaped into the air, creating a massive hammer of light as he brought it down onto Gunther's head.

[Hmph.]

The shadows on Gunther's arms thickened and stretched, forming a wide shield that absorbed the impact of the light hammer, which promptly detonated as well. The light burned through Gunther's shield, the orbs of light surrounding Vincent shooting light beams at the creature.

Gunther took a step back as Vincent pushed forward, failing to notice the ends of the Deathrider's cape wrap around his ankle, pulling on it and making the man fall on his back. Gunther capitalized on the opportunity, bringing both fists down on the ground, the strength behind his attack breaking the earth they stood on, making them both slide to the lower levels of the quarry along with the debris.

The moment they landed, Vincent's orbs immediately fired into the dust, trying to hit Gunther. While he looked for his adversary, Vincent's instincts screamed at him. He rolled to the right, dodging multiple shadow spikes that grew from the spot he was previously at.

Still feeling a sense of danger, Vincent dodged again, this time a massive greatsword of shadow falling from the sky to split the earth in two, Gunther gripping the handle. Vincent filled both hands with light swords as Gunther pulled his own from the earth, the two locking eyes before charging at each other.

Gunther swung horizontally at Vincent, who slid under the blade only to see a boot of shadow about to stomp on him.

'TETHER!' He thought quickly, jamming the tip of one of his swords into the ground and disappearing, leaving Gunther to stomp on plain stone. He reappeared a short distance away, holding on to the tether he made before the fight started. 

He glanced at Gunther, making his light orbs fire at him repeatedly as he created more light swords. In response, Gunther leaped high into the air, disappearing from sight.

'...Did it just leave?'

Vincent questioned internally as he did a 360 turn, not letting his guard down. However, his question was soon answered as he began to see small dots appear in the sky that slowly grew bigger.

"Damnit! Lightspeed!" 

More lines appeared on Vincent's body, his skin began to glow slightly as he realized the objects in the sky were dozens of gigantic greatswords of shadow. They rained down on the quarry as Vincent turned into a blur, running and dodging all over the place.

As he dodged another falling greatsword, he noticed too late the shadow creature accompanying it. Gunther layered his fist with thick shadows before swinging at Vincent's head, who crossed his arms to block it.

He was sent flying from the force of the punch, feeling the pain of the bones in his arms cracking. He crashed into one of the shadow greatswords sticking out of the ground, breaking through the massive blade, the shadows eating away at his light aura.

He scrambled on the ground for a bit before regaining his footing, a spike of darkness appearing in the distance, instantly closing the distance and piercing his shoulder. Vincent let out a yell in pain, his light dimming and his orbs disappearing.

He fell on his butt as the spike vibrated, pulling itself out and floating in the air for a moment before growing. The shadow grew and grew until Vincent saw that the spike of shadow had transformed into Gunther.

"Don't… look down on me…" Vincent huffed as he placed a glowing palm on his shoulder wound, burning away the corrosive dark energy from the spike.

Remaining silent, Gunther merely raised a hand before shooting another spike into Vincent's leg, making the Mage hiss in pain.

[Physical exertion, shoulder and leg wound, both arms broken, and more. This bout is over.] 

Looking him over, Gunther merely named his observations of Vincent's injuries before beginning to walk away. The shadow creature paused before looking at Vincent again.

[You are lucky that you are important.]

With that, Gunther began to walk away, ignoring how Vincent was staring daggers at him as he rested on the floor of a half-destroyed quarry that was littered with black greatswords.

"No… dammit…" Vincent felt the corner of his vision blackening as he watched Gunther walk away. "I can't let him return to the town… to the students…"

'I'll have to use it again.'

Ignoring his injuries and exhaustion, Vincent got to his feet, the inside of his cloak lighting up as he prepared to cast a spell that he hasn't used in years. 

'I'll need to have enough left to be still able to fight after using it. A quarter - no, half should be enough.'

Vincent took a deep breath as he cast his spell.

"Lightfall." He breathed out. "Half-Possession."

Gunther, who was already well on his way out of the quarry, felt a great surge in that disgusting light energy. He sighed in frustration.

[Again? Really now?]

He turned around to see Vincent on his feet, his skin glowing brighter than ever before. He saw wings of light form on his back, only staying for a few seconds before cracking and splintering apart in the wind, as his blue hair turned into strands of light.

Gunther saw the holes in his shoulder and leg be filled with light, and a belt of light also wrapped around his waist, with straps on the back and sides trailing down to his legs. After the energy rose a bit higher, Vincent opened his eyes, revealing his right eye - pupil and sclera and all - to have been replaced by light, while his left eye remained blue and bloodshot. 

Now reawakened, Vincent changed his stance, stretching and rubbing his wrists as a nasty grin overtook his face. He locked eyes with Gunther.

"Now, I've never seen something like YOU before!" He exclaimed in a high tone of voice, different to how he usually spoke.

Gunther tilted his head and stuck a hand out, one of his massive greatswords appearing.

[Interesting.]