"I was actually made to be a panacea."
Shadow offers the Skittles to Malos while he monologues. "I was made as the Ultimate Lifeform - the most powerful entity bound by mortal limits that could exist. My genetic material contains immunity to aging and all forms of disease - but my creator made a deal with alien monsters to create me, and the part of them that went into me gave me destructive potential. Enough that I could become a weapon."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Malos chuckles. I mean, he really, heartily chuckles.
"And you've already told me your backstory. Honestly, what kind of upside-down world do you think we live in? Next thing you're going to cry a single, lonely tear and deliver a speech on why life is so unfair. Well, if you are, zip it, I'm not and never will be interested, I already know."
He dismisses the skittle, and... Malos is already walking away, goddamn it. "If you're not going to say anything useful, I'll figure things out on my own."
Edited by Whoma on Aug 4th 2021 at 7:09:37 AM
Yatta!Shadow once again uses Chaos Control, this time appearing in front of Malos.
"You don't see me prompting people for their backstories and then laughing in their faces when they decide to exposit. There's a difference between edgy and douchebag."
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Malos looks Shadow in the eyes.
"Glad we're seeing eye to eye. Call me what you want, I don't owe you a damn thing."
With that, Malos continues walking. He doesn't want to provoke a fight... but his idea of 'not provoking a fight' is 'not just walking right over Shadow', so really, anything could happen.
Yatta!"CHAOS SPEAR!"
A lance of destructive light gets yote at Malos from behind. If he turns, he will see Shadow with his fists raised.
"I don't like holding grudges. Let's settle this now."
Rival Battle: Shadow (For True Story) - Sonic Generations
Malos, sensing Shadow's hostile intent, has a moment to raise his hand, a well of dark ether bursting forth from his palm. Using it, he turns and, rather than block the spear, uses the ether to slow down the spear, giving him time enough to sidestep it.
"Eager for a fight, are we? Bad news for you, I'm in a bit of a bad mood, you couldn't have picked a worse time!"
Dashing forward, Malos shouts out "Striker Edge!" as his Monado appears in his hands, it's blade bursting forth to its full length. He swings the weapon upwards, not particularly trying to hit Shadow, though he wouldn't complain if it did, but moreso trying to get a better idea of what Shadow can do... and, furtherso, relearn what he can do as well.
Yatta!Shadow parries the Monado slash with a kick, its beam glancing off his thrusting foot in a shower of energy-sparks.
"Hm."
He leaps into the air and plummets towards Malos with a horizontal flying kick, landing on his back. If Malos is still within leg reach upon landing, Shadow will do a capoeira spin-kick back onto his feet for a mini combo!
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Malos, feeling his opponent's emotions to pinpoint their next action to an approximate, rather than try and fruitlessly dodge someone as incredibly fast as Shadow, simply uses his shield- the one natural to him as a blade- to block his flying kick and subsequent spin-kick. Still, the hits do force him to take a few steps back.
"Oh? You've got fight in you, that's for sure. Take this! Spiral Savate!"
Channeling dark ether into a low-kick, Malos aims to sweep Shadow off-balance- and, of course, to deal some hefty damage- nothing from him isn't at least a bit lethal.
Yatta!Shadow gets tossed away by Malos' kick, but he stops himself in midair. His body begins to emit red light as he charges up a Chaos Blast...
and then the area around both of the edgelord combatants is blanketed with missiles and cut through by lasers. "WHAT THE?!"
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Malos senses the hostile intent before the exact result of that intent- but it isn't exactly short notice, and he isn't exactly prepared for the firepower. He puts up his blade natural shield, and it does a nice job of blocking most of the damage, but it isn't quite enough. A missile explodes pretty damn close to him without any defense between him and taking the full blast. It's enough to send him reeling, glaring upwards to see who has the balls
"A strike from above!? Who exactly do you think you are!?"
Yatta!It's... a fighter plane!
Despite it literally attacking them, Malos will not be able to 'feel' any kind of intent from it at all... meaning it's a UAV - a drone!
"What the hell is..."
The fighter, Hugin, circles back around, blitzing Shadow and Malos with machine-gun fire before swooping off and circling around for another pass.
Shadow protects himself with a Chaos barrier, grimacing as he watches Hugin's flight path.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Ah.
Unable to sense the intent from this annoying machine, Malos uses his natural blade barrier against the torrent of machine-gun fire. Even the barrier of Dromarch could withstand sort-of similar firepower, at least for a while, so it isn't a problem for him.
What could be annoying is what may come after. This needed to end- now. It isn't a proper art, but Malos grins as he channels dark ether into both of his hands, launching two balls of the stuff right for the UAV, each sailing in a straight line, where, if they were to hit, they would explode!
Yatta!Hugin's engines suddenly sputter out in midair as its nosecone tips upward, falling past Malos' dark ether orbs.
"... Did it malfunction?"
Just before hitting the ground, its engines roar to life and it rockets back into the sky. "Ah. It's an 'ace pilot'-type. And a showoff."
Shadow looks at Malos. "Can you fly?"
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Shadow keeps his eyes on Hugin as it zooms high up into the sky - straight up, like it's planning to divebomb them. "One of us throws the other at the plane and they unleash an attack when they're as close to it as they can get. An attack large and powerful enough that it can't dodge with any fancy maneuvers."
He smirks and tries to grab Malos, though Malos has time to reverse the situation and throw Shadow first.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."As a man with the self-esteem of an actual rock, Malos just accepts he is being thrown, and soars right at the plane.
As he flies, his whole body is enveloped in a purple light, like the light of a blade achieving max affinity with its driver. "Chakra... BURST!"
As he reaches the plane, Malos unleashes a wide-ranged omnidirection blast of ether that blankets the surroundings. The destructive power is high, but its real potential lies in its knockback- that is to say, it's got a lot.
Yatta!Hugin is currently plummeting towards the ground. It tries to evade, but is sent flying in a hilarious tailspin. Radio static suddenly blares in Malos and Shadow's ears. Malos... might be able to understand what it's saying.
error — targets exceed organic limitation — retreat, repair, refuel, resupply — HUGIN UNIT ENDING TRANSMISSION
Shadow gives a thumbs-up as the drone rights itself and zooms away.
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Refia is breathing heavily, panting as she pushes herself up.
"Did... did you even hear me? I said... the point of this was the fight."
She reaches for a table and clings to it with one hand, shakily pulling herself to her feet.
"I... have to get stronger... to protect the people... I care about. I can't get stronger if I just... give up every time... I'm losing!" she yells, her words flinging spittle.
"You do as well."
Shadow narrows his eyes. He doesn't have an innate ability to sense emotion and intent like Malos, but he's pretty good at picking things up on intuition alone. "But I'm guessing our goals wouldn't exactly line up, so don't make any plans of an alliance."
Edited by KiriK on Aug 5th 2021 at 11:10:16 AM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."Refia manages another 'image-flash' to create a barrier that stops Lucia's attack dead. Her eyelids are drooping, her breathing heavy.
"I... I can do it... I just need a little... a little more..."
Edited by KiriK on Aug 5th 2021 at 1:58:18 PM
"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to."

Malos looks behind him.
For a moment, he regards the energy used by this... weirdo. It isn't like any of the data he has on record, which is mildly concerning, to put it lightly. But still. "So. What are you supposed to be, anyways? Some kind of cartoon monster, designed to piss me off?
Malos crosses his arms. "Or are you some kind of weapon?", he says, abusing his almost prescient empathy to immediately guess Shadow's tragic backstory.
A hilarious gift to give the embodiment of the world's end. Really makes him chuckle when he thinks about it.
Yatta!