Training Time! (open)

OOC: feel free to join whenever. If no one posts, I'll keep posting as a solo until someone does~

It wasn't too far into the afternoon when Elly made her way to the battle arena. She had heard about it from other students in her classes, but this was the first time that she was going to check it out for herself. After looking her schedule over for anything she had to do, she figured she would make it here while she had free time for about an hour. Besides, she needed to practice anyway, and she had already spoken to the defense and combat teacher about meeting up with her to help her train. She was tired of not being able to fully control her power, and she definitely wanted to get stronger. 

As she walked up, she looked over the arena. There wasn't much to it, but it was good enough considering for her training, it was going to be a giant mirage. Still, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in it. Even as she saw the defense teacher, she couldn't wipe the look of slight disdain from her face but they didn't seemed too phased by her look and instead began preparing for the session.

It seemed that as soon as Carl managed to at least somewhat learn his surroundings, he always managed to stumble upon some new place. Just how big was this place? Although he hadn't heard or stumbled across the battle arena before, he could easily tell that it was some sort of mock battle arena- a seemingly poorly made one at that. Reaching up to brush a few stray strands of hair from his forehead, Carl found himself debating whether or not to actually go forth and investigate or not. At least it would be a good way for him to kill some time.

Watching Elly with a look of minute interest, Carl finally strode forwards and followed suit after the other girl, a look of minute interest on his face. The closer he got to the batle arena, however, the more disappointed he became- he'd seen ghetto malls that could put together stands that were more impressive than this...mess. Tiling his head slightly, the dark headed boy continued to absently take in the surroundings of the battle arena with a obvious look of disappointment that matched Elly's expression, although his attention was quickly pulled towards the other girl standing there alongside him.

"Gonna train alone?" Carl offered with a coy little smile, "Where's the fun in that?"

The new voice had slightly caught the spring off guard. She wasn't expecting anyone else to join her, but being out in the middle of campus in a spot that seemed to be very worn, she should have figured that she was going to run into someone around here. However, as Elly turned to face the newcomer, she took a moment to look him over as she had never seen him before. He didn't even look like anyone she had seen in any of her classes... not like she paid attention though. She was there to learn all that she could, not worry about who was gossiping in the back of the room.

Raising an eyebrow at him, she wasn't too impressed, but at least he seemed more approachable than anyone else she had met so far. "When you don't have many friends, it's a little hard to find someone to train with," she replied, mirroring his smile for a moment. "Also, the less people, the easier it is to concentrate. You here to train or you here to watch?" She asked with a hint of urgency and demanding in her voice. She was ready to get started. She only had so much time to get some training in today.

Tilting his head slightly once more, Carl's smile sharped slightly as he listened to the first part of Elly's words, amused at the fact that he could partially relate to her words. The closest thing he likely had to a friend since arriving here was Caine- and god forbid that he would ever consider his older brother his friend. A wry little laugh escaped his mouth as he continued to look at Elly, finding himself offering a brief nod in agreement to her words. "As much as I would love to sit back, relax, and watch a girl as lovely as you train," He drawled with another effortless smile, "I think it would be more fun to train." Striding forwards once more, Carl gave the rickety training area in front of them another dubious glance before looking back at Elly, "How do you even train 'round here?"

The boy's comments made the spring give a small smirk, quickly loosening up to him. He had a way with words, that was for sure, but she wasn't going to let that distract her. When he decided to join her for training, she turned back to look at the defense teacher who was patiently waiting for them to get set up. "From what he's told me, he's going to set up a mirage where we can do whatever we want with our power without destroying anything important. So, if you're ready, I'd love to get started," she told Carl, as she set herself up again, taking a deep breath and giving the teacher a short nod.

After closing her eyes for a moment, she could very quickly feel everything change around her and Carl. Quickly, the temperature began to rise and the air drastically became more humid. As Elly opened her eyes and looked around, she found herself surrounded by thick, tropical brush with trees that stretched into the sky. It looked entirely unfamiliar, and as soon as she searched the immediate area, she quickly grew uncomfortable. What was supposed to be here and how was this supposed to help? What was this teacher going to throw at them? "Hey, what do you think about this place?" She asked Carl, not even bothering to see if he had actually made it into the mirage or not. She simply half expected him to already be there ready to go.

Another small smile graced Carl's face as Elly offered her own returning grin to his words, but he didn't push his luck any further. The last thing he needed was to step on her toes and risk getting beaten up by her. Caine kicked his ass enough as is. Nodding along to her words, he simply offered his silent agreement to her offer to start and turned his attention towards the awaiting teacher. He didn't really know what to expect with this whole 'training' thing, but it couldn't possibly be too bad, right?

He could feel his face twitch in a mixture of emotions in response to the emerging simulation that slowly morphed the land around them. The feeling of literally everything around him changing wasn't the most pleasant feeling he had ever felt, but it wasn't exactly painful either. God, the longer he stayed in this place, the weirder it got. Pulling a face, Carl's bright gaze swept the new landscape with intense scrutiny. They were in...a jungle? Disgusting. Couldn't they of literally gone anywhere else? Nature was disgusting. "I think it's humid." Carl stated plainly, reaching up to ruefully run a hand through his hair as he spoke, "But what now?"

A quick eye roll was the only response Carl got from Elly on his remark about it being humid, although he was right. It was almost obnoxiously humid. That was one thing she did like about getting out of South Carolina. "I'm actually not too sure..." she muttered, keeping her head on a swivel around them. "He said that there was going to be something we have to fight, but I'm not seeing anything."

Purely by coincidence, a low growl suddenly resonated through the air and the foliage a short distance away began to rustle. Emerging from its hiding place was something that looked almost like a mutated dog. Its front half was massive, muscles rippling under its bare skin while four eyes glared menacingly at them above a set of long sharp teeth. Long claws stretched out from its four feet as it stalked toward them, saliva dripping from its maw.

The sound quickly drew Elly's attention. Upon turning and laying her eyes on the hideous creature, the spring gasped and had to suppress a scream. "That! That's what we have to fucking fight?!" she cried. Her first thought was to run but she knew that there would be no escaping it, so instead, she posed herself to fight, hoping her powers wouldn't fail her.

OOC: hilariously, there was a picture similar to what I was thinking of.

Spoiler:

Carl & Elly right now:

"Oh fuck." Carl practically wheezed, his eyes going wide as he caught sight of the drooling dog-like creature that lumbered before them. What happened to the 'student friendly' environment? Both of his hands immediately lifted to his now frizzy hair, anxious pulling at the curls as he tried to assess what the hell they were supposed to do. They didn't really seem to have any sort of advantages going for them at the moment either. "What the fuck do we even do?" Carl finally spit, quickly seizing a dark, heavy-looking branch as a futile weapon.

"I... I have no idea..." she replied, her voice quivering at the thought of trying to beat or outrun this thing. There was no chance that either one of them could get away from it. The thing was too massive to try to escape. It's size was also too big to try to beat. The spring's eyes darted around, trying to find anything to help them, but found nothing as the beast's growl grew ever louder as it finally lunged at the two students.

Elly barely had any time to react. As the thing reached out toward them with its long claws, Elly instinctively threw her arms up in defense. Immediately, the huge dog-like creature crashed into a wall of earthy spikes sticking at least six feet out of the ground while reaching straight for the sky. The ground trembled for a moment at the impact, the creature letting out a squeal of surprise as it flopped on the jungle floor. When she saw the thing stop moving for a second, she turned to Carl. "Got any ideas yet? Because I've got nothing!"

Carl watched with a wince as Elly sent the massive dog-like creature sprawling, his eyes wide as he watched the girl seemingly created spikes that were taller than both of them. Thankfully it seemed like the spikes had given them a few moments to try and get their bearings. Did he even have any ideas? It's not like he could make giant spikes or weapons or do anything remotely useful. "Not yet." Carl admitted, watching as the creature slowly got to its feet once more. Honestly how were two kids supposed to defend themselves against something like that? Let alone kill it?

"But what's the worse that can happen?" Carl laughed nervously, tightening his grasp on the heavy branch as the creature began to slink forward again. They couldn't like...die or anything, right? Wouldn't the school get in trouble if they died? Getting distracted by his own confused thoughts, Carl hardly paid attention as the creature lunged once more, it's long, razor-like nails painfully clipping his thigh and knees. Letting out an embarrassingly loud shriek of surprise, he quickly brought the heavy branch down so hard that it splintered on the creature's head, feeling a brief flash of satisfaction at the way it reeled away. "Well if you have any special magic abilities now would be the time to tell me!" Carl called, wincing at the way his leg burned from contact with the creature.

As the spikes crumbled from the monster's impact, Elly looked visibly shaken. Not only did that take a lot out of her for just one use, but that... thing was already getting up and coming back. Of course, within seconds it was back on its feet, lunging for Carl, slicing through his leg like it was nothing. Elly couldn't hide her fear any better than Carl could. A loud scream escaped from her until the branch the boy had connected solidly with the creature, scaring it back for a moment with a yelp. All the while, the spring's brain felt fuzzy. How was she supposed to deal with this? She wasn't taught how to kill massive mutant dogs!

"I got nothin'!" she claimed, finally coming to her senses and reaching for Carl, yanking on him to get him back on his feet. "You've seen all I got! Got anymore branches?" Quickly, though, the monster was back up and roaring with fury. With quick thinking, Elly grabbed the closest thing to her-- a much smaller branch-- and chunked it at the creature, the thing turning into a small spike that went spiraling towards it. Although the spike landed and embedded itself into the mutant's shoulder, it barely seemed to phase it at this point as it charged yet again, its long jagged teeth bared.