Matter or Mind {Aurum/Thirteen}

"Of course not. We use religion for a multitude of reasons, both good and bad. But of all the reasons, zeal has not been particularly pleasant for the inhabitants of our world."

Frankly, it got more people killed than not. Of course there were many different kinds of zeal, the term was most often used when conducting a sort of crusade. History had seen how that turned out. It wasn't a pleasant thing.

"Well, luck isn't all of it. It just has a tendency of helping those that are outmatched."

Although Aurora wasn't outmatched in the slightest frankly...it only looked as if David was taking Goliath, but the truth was probably much more even than that analogy could have made things out to be. Although of course, Aurum wouldn't have any of that.

Aurora pulled her own gun as soon as he had made the gesture, at first wondering what he was trying to pull. She was soon answered.

A bench. He was pulling a bench. Literally.

Aurora whipped around, shooting slugs into the bench and rotting its wood. She did his job for him, and with a swing, shattered the wood, and sent it flying around her. Covering herself immediately, Aurora nudged the trajectory of some of the splinters ever so slightly at Aurum's face.

Aurora rubbed her arm. Despite the weakening she had put on the wood, she did not have nearly as much strength as her opponent did.

"I appreciate the pick up, but it's certainly not necessary."

In an insulting move, an owl flying overhead decided to dump its load on Aurum's head. Aurora giggled, maybe having something to do with that...or maybe not.

Nobody really knew.

"You on the other hand appear quite unlucky."

Aurora aimed for Aurum's left leg, not deceiving what she was attempting. The mage fired simply, aiming to see either how much damage he could tolerate, or at least deal with by moving. Either was fine.

Aurora was not going to be able to keep up these lucky coincidences forever, in fact, she was going to have to step up her game and start actually fighting with heavier firepower, or at least even the score up a little bit if she wanted to fight without busting out some of her more vulgar spells; you know, the ones that really started toying with forces that should otherwise remain in place.

The mage smiled. At the very least, Aurora would probably never be able to sway the fact that where Aurum came from was a very different place. And while maybe the Emperor he spoke about technically no longer existed, she could feel a little of his power standing right in front of her.

That was a pretty excellent sight in the least.

"I don't think I'm out-gunned. Just need better aim."

Just like all humans, Aurum had points about his body that dealt with keeping entropy at bay. Major organs, and other minor ones that dealt with self-repair. Of course, being from a time where medical technology had advanced to such a ridiculous degree, there were many more of these points of entropic stasis than any normal human.

It also meant more targets.

Unfortunately, Aurum was going to get his chance to do some damage. Before she could fire again, he was in something of a power slide and the only way around his wingspan would be over. The mage took a snapshot.

Also a bad idea. Going over was exactly what he had wanted, as Aurora felt the grasp of one of Aurum's large hands grabbed onto her leg. If she was going to go down for this, maybe at the very least she could fire her weapon before being entirely pinned down...going for the very points in Aurum's body that made him tick.

Of course not to kill him, but enough that he'd get the message that she wasn't to be trifled with, even if she was going to be in the proverbial hospital for a few weeks.

If anyone else had seen this admittedly crazy exchange, Aurora would have been tried and convicted for aggravated assault or attempted murder. That of course, was nothing of the case. Strangely though however, Aurum had stopped right after she had shot her; although she had fully intended for him to absolutely crush her after that grab.

Once again, extremely lucky. She could have...hell, should have been in the hospital for some time after that, but instead, now Aurum was the one that was injured and bleeding. The mage actually felt bad for drawing weapons on him. It was something of a dirty trick.

"I was not intending to either test, nor see your prowess. But I've found that some combat helps me understand someone better. I'm sorry for your injuries...one moment."

Aurora circled behind him, and rested her hand upon his back while channel a small mix of temporal and entropic energies. The bullets that had done the most damage pulled themselves out through the same entry wounds that they had caused, which then closed up themselves.

"I hope that feels better, that's the first time in awhile I've every fire those at anyone that was actually alive."

__

"I hope not to make a habit of fighting those that pop out of wormholes, but you appear a very capable man; so I hope that at least you think it was justified. Although I'm something a trickster in a fight, I probably should not have done that in a straight up fight, and I apologize for that."

Being a trickster in a fight was a good thing when you were fighting for your life. But fighting for understanding meant that you needed to leave yourself somewhat vulnerable to get hit. Aurum had done that quite a bit, but Aurora played as if being scared to take a hit. She could take it, even with Aurum's notable strength...but she was scared.

"Then maybe it is of notable irony that time has healed you today as well, hm?"

Time magic could be a wonderful thing. It wasn't actually something that Aurora used very often, or for good, so at least in this case, she could make at least something of a difference.

"We should probably go before someone decides to look around. Firearm reports at a supernatural school or not are generally not looked kindly upon."