Transversing the Grounds

Eyes were weary as Indiana looked up into the sky that dreary afternoon, watching the ominous clouds above completely filling the atmosphere. The weather was slightly cold but his trenchcoat kept the elements at bay. While the day had been fine, Indiana felt that he was walking a thin line, his thoughts going back to the strange traveler that he encountered at the ruins of Stonehenge and what sounded like the voice of fate speaking from her mouth.

The great beasts across time have fallen but not before the tides has been unleashed.

From the dark corners, the blackest of the shadows shall unveil their unholy borders.

Abominable harbingers, the very enemies of Nature, shall awaken from their slumber.

And the ancient evils from times long forgotten shall rise and break their shackles asunder.

Terror, Pain, Chaos, and Death approach boldly towards the light without hindrance.

Let those with wisdom know: the coming maelstrom shall decide the fate of existence.

All that wander within creation's domain are not spared from the cruel whims that are to come.

Indiana didn't know on what to make of it before memories of his encounters came flooding back into his mind. The Dementor-Werewolf hybrid, the Polypous Aberration, and that unknown nightmare creature in Little Whinging... could they somehow be linked? Then there was that Baalite cultist that he had been pursuing, only to find him dead on the outskirt of Dublin, Ireland. Indiana didn't want to think that they was a connection between him and that set of prophetic verses, which he still had doubts about.

As he walked across the grounds of the castle, Indiana looked at the sky, which seemed to be an omen of a storm that has yet to arrive.

Maya walked around the grounds, the cold wind blowing at her face. she looked up at the gray clouds covered sky, and she smiled, she has always loved winter she never was a cheery kid that goes out and plays in the sun, it confused most people when she was young.

she shivered as she made her way to a familiar location she used to go to all her Hogwarts years, and she found a boy standing there, she didn't recognize him at first, so she ignored him and continued walking, but as soon as she got a good look at his face, and his black hair, she hissed.

she stood in her place for a second, before deciding that it was her duty to mess with muggleborns now, her parents were very proud that she has joined the movement, and she has made her choice, even if she did not completely agree with all the concepts, she had to protect purebloods, she was one of them!

she put a smirk on her face and strut over to the boy
"hello mudblood, enjoying the day" she chuckled "you should, it could easily be your last"

Maya pushed all hesitant thoughts out of her head, and she put her poker face on.

Indiana had heard footsteps and simply thought it was just some other person walking about until the sounds came closer and he heard the incoming dialogue.

Well, Indiana certainly had been on the receiving end of the slur designed against those of Muggle-born descent but such an insult was just that, an insult of the word. For all it it, the youth could sense the abrupt arrogance of this girl, whom he didn't immediately recognize although there was some faint resemblance to someone that he knew some time ago. Brushing his thoughts aside, Indiana merely cast a narrowing look at the stranger.

"Tough talk but then again, that's probably all you're good at." Indiana replied bluntly with a neutral expression that was devoid of any emotion.

Maya raised an eyebrow at the boy's reply, but of course she was not going to back down, after all it was almost her job.

she chuckled at him "are you willing to challenge that thought O dear mudblood friend?" she said with a sarcastic tone.

she only wished she could get this over with, and hoped more for the dark lady to hear about her. if she had learned anything from the history books, it was that one being related to a leader does not make her chances in being punished for slacking any smaller.

Maya had her hand hidden in the pocket of her robes with her wand at the ready for any move that the boy could make against her, and she smirked at him saying "you know if I were you, I would be running away from me already. I guess you're not as smart''

Indiana merely raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "Maybe. Or perhaps I'm not running because you're a complete joke that is only capable of threats without backing them up."

What were the odds of in-house fighting? The youth took a mental note in keeping an eye on his surroundings whenever he was in the Ravenclaw Tower. After all, he didn't fancy the idea of getting assassinated in his sleep.

"How about you show me what you can do, cheapskate?" Indiana suggested as he subtly positioned his feet to take a fighting stance, his right hand readied to summon his wand on an instant's notice.

Maya chuckled at his insult and said "you little piece of filth, you will not address your superiors like this" and she gave him her death glare, the one that used to terrify even her friends when she got mad, it felt good, she has not used it in a while.

"you're too confident boy, i think dirt is not allowed to be this confidant 'crucio' " she pulled her wand out of her robes at once, and of course what's better to start with that one of her favorites.

she prepared her mind for fight mood, and shut down everything but the strategy planning going throw her head, it was at last time to put her skills to the test.

Indiana had managed to draw his wand the moment he saw the girl draw hers. But the incantation she chanted gave him pause and that was a costly mistake. The Cruciatus Curse slammed into him such that he felt all of his pain receptors flaring wildly that he cried out in pain. Yet, while the pain receptors were being stimulated to the point that it brought him down to his knees, Indiana was drawn back to a previous experience in which he had endured the curse before. The pain was nothing new yet it didn't make anything easier.

The Cruciatus Curse required a lot of hate and sadistic emotion as fuel to be cast and such things would come from memories. As powerful as the curse was, the caster would be flooding one's mind with emotion just to fuel the Cruciatus and that could lead to the lowering of the person's mental shields. That is unless the person was trained to avoid that downside.

Taking aim, Indiana yelled. "Confringo!"

Maya's mind was filled with all the hate she's ever felt in her life and all the heartbreak that has called on this hate, but still she remembered what her mother told her during her training 'keep focused Maya. or else you might lose a limp once' she tried exactly what her training taught her and she managed to realize what Indiana was doing just at the right moment.

"Protego" she yelled and the shield barely came up in time to protect her head from being blown off. she cast a none verbal Confringo at him and seconds later she yelled ''Expulso''

she took a deep breath as she again strengthened the protection around her,

Shaking off the painful after-effects of the Cruciatus, Indiana narrowed his eyes when he saw Maya deflect his spell away before seeing her send the same curse non-verbally at him along with another spell.

Clearing his mind to focus on letting the combat mentality and a different persona take over, he quickly dodged both spells before non-verbally firing a javelin of lightning into the sky. A split second later, a hail of lightning spears began to rain down, sailing towards Maya.

Not wanting to be a stationary target, Indiana began to move about, alternating between running or side-stepping but never stopping and always changing directions while keeping his eye on Maya. At the same time, he waited for an opening in her defenses to present itself.

Maya heard the thunder created by the boy that was recovering from her curse before she saw it, and the engines in her mind ran at full speed and before the first spark hit her and blew her head off she summoned which she could not believe she did.. an umbrella charmed to deflect the harmful energy away and onto Indiana.

she held it covering her entire body and used it to aim exactly at where the boy was standing.
her breath was coming in gasps as she realized that this kid really intended to fight back, and she had to actually hurt him for the whole thing to be over.

Maya lifted her wand at the sky and as her eyes disappeared into the back of her head she began chanting in parseltounge. green stripes of light were starting to form in the middle of the sky and in a second they stared coming down revealing their ghostly snake like form to attack.
she regained focus as she put her mind away linking her mind to the spirits so she can control their every move as they slithered deadly over to the Ravenclaw boy.

Seeing the lightning being reflected towards him, Indiana had no reason to be on the receiving end of his own spell before conjuring a magical pentagram of whitish-blue light and absorbed the incoming energy. Once theat was done, he reformed the pentagram and the reabsorbed lightning into a long blade of raw energy.

Hearing his foe chant in Parceltongue, Indiana had a bad feeling on what Maya had in store before quickly holding his left hand, which had a ring around each finger, before him. Blue fire began to form as Indiana mentally recited. 'Annihilation is its name and its role is the sword. The blessed flame that renders judgment on wicked. Come forth and pass sentence!'

The blue fire erupted to form an elaborate pattern of circles and glyphs before multiple demonic roars echoed. The large pattern then vanished to form three flaming humanoid demons engulfed in blue fire with glowing whitish blue light coming forth from their mouths and eyes. Indiana knew that they were sentient enough to react on their own yet remain loyal to him.

Sensing the threat to the youth, three flaming entities moved to intercept the incoming dangers while Indiana kept his focus on Maya before swinging the lightning blade downwards and chanted. "Raikouzan!"

The lightning blade then detached from the tip of his wand in mid-swing before sailing across the distance towards its intended target.

"What will you do now?" Indiana muttered nonchalantly, a bit tired from his huge usage of magic.

Maya saw her snakes fighting with his demons and she sent them the order to kill, her eyes had turned black as she used the Slytherin powers and she stored her wand back in its place.

she knew it was a tad too much to use all that power, but she let it envelope her and she felt the darkness taking over her brain, she let out a cruel laugh as dark shadows sprang from the tip of her fingers, it collided with the lightning sword and it absorbed all its energy into its darkness.

she pointed her hand at Indiana's neck and began closing her fist, and she felt her energy moving through the distance the suffocate him, and she smirked, all evidence of sweetness gone from her face.

"you chose a losing battle you silly boy"

The sensation of a steel-like grip around his throat had Indiana choking amid his air passage being blocked. Try as he might, whatever magic that Maya was using turned out to be really powerful and unseen. But if that was the case, she would have to be using a lot of power just to fuel it. Conjecture could be made but the youth had no time for that. The mental stress was building up and he was beginning to feel the effects of oxygen-deprivation.

Slowly but surely, he began to lose balance, dropping his wand and falling on his back. It seemed hopeless and the Grim Reaper looked to be waiting at an opportunity. Indiana could feel himself close to blacking out and thought he could see the spectrum of memories detailing his life. Life is so beautiful and yet there are those that sought to harm it. Thinking back on the people he had known that had passed away over the years, Indiana had been determined not to endure an unexpected fate. The liberty in choosing one's demise should not always be left in fate's hands. Almost as if a spark had been triggered within his being, Indiana could sense in inner fervor within himself that focused only one desire in his mind and that was to live.

Feeling the determination coursing through himself, Indiana began concentrating his magical energies and chanting in Notarikon. Slowly, the pressure around his neck began to subside until Indiana threw off the magical yoke from his neck. His dark amethyst eyes were filled with an intense fire that burned brighter than the stars of the night sky yet Indiana was glaring at Maya with an unquenchable anger that surpassed the fires of Hell.

"You foul monkey, your overconfidence shall be your downfall!"

Since he was almost close to a full recovery, Indiana drew upon the entropic magical energies of the environment and conjured a green vine with thorns from the tip of his wand. The end of the vine went straight into the earth, which began to tremble for a moment before multiple vines shot out from underneath the ground all around Maya in relatively close proximity. The youth manipulated the thorny vines to explode in a spray of corrosive acid and sharp tissue.

Maya stood with a twisted grin on her face, she watched as her rival suffered and began chocking, somehow she just couldn't get herself to feel sorry for him, she just marveled at his form. she let out a small laugh as he began to lose his balance and fell.

but seconds after she felt something battling against her magical aura, and the hand around Indiana's neck started letting go, she took it off completely and was getting ready for another attack when he got up miraculously, even though human body wasn't supposed to withhold unharmed after her tight grip, 'well maybe adrenaline is that strong' she thought.

suddenly she felt the earth beneath her shake and green vines started wrapping themselves around her form, she could feel the thorns breaking her delicate skin, but due to the Slytherin powers she was still using she protected her self immediatly.
she smirked at his weak attempt when she felt them explode all of a sudden, but somehow she still wasn't afraid for her safty, what she did know was that it was a very bad idea to usew her full powers when not completly needed, but of course the powers controling her mind left that thought out of her head for now.
she erupted into flames in the matter of seconds, and all the acid got draw into the ball of fire starting all around her, not harming her of course.
she lifted up her hand and with a push to the air around her the ball of fire created by Indiana's vines went straight to attack him, and to in-power her attack more Maya charmed it to Follow the young bit around till it hit him, and she be-spelled it against water.

"lets see whom of us is the monkey now..or shall i say fried monkey" she laughed

'So there's more to you than meets the eye.' Indiana thought as he watched Maya shield against his attack before seeing her creating an inferno while adding a number of charms to it. Not one to waste time or to wait and react, the youth decided to take the old quote fighting fire with fire to a more literal level. But first, he had to get past his foe's attack.

As Maya's attack drew near, Indiana immediately placed his wand away before channeling external magic around him to his right hand. At the same time, he focused Qi into his left hand. Bringing both together, the youth unleashed ferocious gusts of wind that turned into a huge turbulent storm that spun around him. As the incoming conflagration made contact, the winds howled loudly as it ensnared the fire before sending it high into the sky where the cold temperatures of the atmosphere weathered it down into tiny embers that dissipated.

Once the storm cleared, Indiana drew his wand before nonverbally chain-casting a quartet of spells together while thinking. 'Lumos Solem! Expelliarmus! Incarerous! Petrificus Totalis!'

From the tip of his wand, a beam of light as bright as the sun erupted forth with three other spells but Indiana wasn't exactly satisfied. As he continued to move, the youth took aim once more at his foe and chanted. "Frigerans Exarmatio!"

At the same time a beam of turquoise light soared forth, he moved his left hand in a series of motions articulating from his wrist until air ripples surrounded it, having his Qi channeled and focused at ready just in case.