"Not enough to win the bout. Lirael uses her energy a lot more efficient, and I think she's also a little stronger than Jacob. He'll have to learn not to show off constantly."

"and how to save power and wear her out sooner. but I believe SE taught her how to absorb energy. she's more skilled. maybe losing will be good for him. he'll learn that showing off doesn't get him far"

*lalala, while lorlyn is distracted, Gecko quickly tries sending a sunstrike at her..*

Stunstrike hits lorlyns reflective shield and bounces back towards gecko. Lorlyn hears a noise and a groan and turned towards gecko. "what did you just do?"

Jacob cursed under his breath. "What am I going to do? Lireal is so skilled. I cannot lose again! I thought the orbs would be a goood distraction to send those force strikes." As Jacobs sheild was being pounded by Lireals attacks, Jacob started thinking about his life before the Guild. he remembered times when he was beaten by children from the other houses. "No!" he thought. "History must not repeat itself! I'm stronger now, I am!" Trying to convince himself. He increased the strengtth of his shield and sent strike after strike at Lireal increasing in power every time and making sure they hit all around Lireals sheild. Jacob used more power still and sent more powerful force strikes and heat strikes to attack Lireal from all sides.

*her eyes were shut so as not to be blinded by the glowing orbs she was sensing were each of his strikes were hitting and absorbing the energy of them straight ino her shield as she did this she had to channel more power into her barrier to prevent herself glowing because that wasn't a good idea or was it?? then she smiled and allowed herself to glow golden. At the same time as she levitated herself and created a localized sandstorm from the arena's sand if jacob wanted to play she would oblige. She sent wave after wave of strong strikes through the ground towards Jacob as more strikes hit him from above then using a bit more energy she converted her illusionary sandstorm into invisible forcestrikes hidden inside a mass of heat strikes which hit Jacobs shield in a frenzy.*

Jacob could feel his sheild wavering after the attack Lireal responded with. He put more power into his sheild and started to levitate. His anger of his memories clouded his vision, as he sent a fresh wave of attack at Lireal. He could just see through the sand that Lireal was golden! "She must be absorbing my power from my attacks!" He thought. He proceeded to throw weak strikes at Lireal and again created some light orbs to blind Lireal as he in turn created illusions of himself around the arena infront of Lireal and started throwing a few strikes with mixed potency, curving them so it looked like the were coming from the illusions he created. His forehead started to break into a sweat as he willed the light orbs away and created strong sheilds around the illusions. "Wow!" he thought, "I've never have lasted this long before! I think I'm starting to really enjoy myself!" He then used more and more of his power sending weak strikes of all types at Lireals sheild feigning the direction and makeing them look like they were coming from the illusions he created. Jacob frowned in concentration as he prepared a huge wave of weak force strikes and sent them in all directions and then twisted their direction and merged them into what he hoped was the strongest force strike he'd ever seen into the back of Lireals sheild. Due to the sand infront of him, Jacob couldn't be sure but he could have sworn he saw a look of panicked surprise on Lireals face, but it was gone in an instant as the sand totally blurred his vision.

*shoot! last time i try to scare another novice with light thats it i have to stop playing around, opening her eyes a crack she saw a lot of Jacobs all sending strikes okay..... well he can't have cloned himself so what to do? Oh!! of course pretending to falter she stopped glowing and using her senses reached out beyond her shield towards the army of jacobs until she found one with a presence ah there! suddenly she dropped to the ground and dropped her attack and her illusions as though she was tired. Jacob and his illusions turned to face her as from her bowed position she unleased a totally invisible but deadly powerful forcestrike straight at the real jacob without so much as twitching to give away she had done it. instead she kept up her appearance of being exhausted. waiting to see if jacob would realise what she was doing.*

SE nodded to herself approvingly. These two have really improved, she thought...

"Jacobs illusions were great, but alsp a waste if energy, again." Alira sighed. "They're both great warriors, but in a few minutes, at least Jacob will be exhausted. Your absorbing shield is a great invention, SE, could you show me how to do it? I tried it before, but instead of absorbing the strikes, I let them through."

"Ofcourse Alira, I'm sure you'll pick it up really easily. The only difficultly I face when teaching that to students is that they don't concentrate fully, which is a problem I doubt you'll have =) Who do you think is more likely to win?" SE asked, watching the two battling carefully.

*lorlyn shrugs and ignores Gecko.* "Don't go anywhere gecko. when their done it's your turn. Alira, SE, I suggest this bout to be the last bout between Jacob and Lirael. Jacob needs to learn patience and maybe a few more skills before he does another bout"

"Yes, I agree. He is really good, but too impatient."

Jacobs face, already pale looking and covered in a cold sweat, blanched further as he saw Lireal crumble. *Was she alright?* Jacob expressed concern and was confused at what to do next. Just as he thought of lowering his sheild to see if she was okay, a very powerful force strike hit his sheild, very nearly smashing it to pieces. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed as he was moved back by the force of the strike. He then realised that Lireal must have focused on his presence to have sent just the one powerful strike that hit him. By now, his body was shaking and his muscles were starting to ache from exhaustion. But still, he was determined not to give up. Rallying his power once more, he hid his presence and whipped up the sand in the arena, just as Lireal had done into a sand storm and relocated himself amongst his illusions. He could feel his power draining, and his body protesting but he still had enough magic left for the time being. He sent out loads of sun strikes and merged them into a powerful heat strike just before they hit Lireals sheild. He relocated himself again and dropped te sand storm and sent four of the most powerful heat strikes he'd ever created and sent them to hit Lireals sheild one after the other from all directions in the hope of possibly being able to buffet her about. Jacob was shaking more at this point and sweat was pouring from him.