slayers_desire | taking Clark to Rome

April is honored that Clark is respectful of her skills. More importantly that is respectful of the lessons that are being shared between the two of them at this moment.

The surprised grunt tells April she does have one advantage. And channeling some additional strength, April aims for the pressure point again. Obviously using magic has not entered her mind yet.

This time he's turned enough and has enough time to get his sword around to block it, and he takes a step back, stamping down his affected foot to try to dispel the numbness. It works a little, and it's disconcerting to feel physical weakness like this without the screaming agony of kryptonite.

"Apparently I'm more like humans than I thought," he comments, although he doesn't sound too surprised. He's always thought it strange that Kryptonians look indistinguishable from humans, so that's nothing new.

"I have noted that you still feel some sensations, like humans do. A good thing, otherwise other pleasureable experiences would be a tough sell." She moves around him, studying his stance carefully.

"I wonder how you would stand against magical attacks."

Clark's heartrate spikes a little at her suggestion. "Um, not well. As well as anyone else, I guess." He doesn't say it like it's a guess.

"You have been attacked my magic before, haven't you?" That makes April's decision easier. Not to use it.

"Yeah, a few weeks ago. Lana, Chloe, and Lois got possessed by witches. They stripped me of my powers-" as well as a good deal of his clothing, but he's not going to mention that, "-and interrogated me. Magic works on me just fine."

He suspects she's probably deciding not to exploit that advantage. "You won't do that. And it would help level the playing field."

Good mental decision Clark. It was bad enough to know that Lois had seen Clark naked. It would be totally unfair to know that three woman had seen him naked.

"You do have the advantage at the moment." April pauses. Then knowing that Clark trusts her, she casts an field of magic on her weapon. Enhancing it slightly so it could do more against his invulnerability.

He wasn't naked, per se, but he was shirtless and chained to a post while they carved lines down his chest with their fingernails, so it's still not something he wants to share or remember.

In his younger days, when his invulnerability was still new, bullets left bruises and heavy impacts could still give him a bloody nose. As he's aged and soaked up the sun, his body has strengthened, but he's still not one hundred percent untouchable. One just has to exert an enormously superhuman amount of force to hurt him, to the point where it's virtually impossible to injure him by physical force. At least inside, away from the direct rays of the sun, he doesn't have that extra outside force to draw on. It evens up the odds a little more.

He nods in approval at her spell choice, and gives no warning before coming at her, swinging his sword towards her midsection.

The excitement of the combat returns, as Clark comes at her with his sword. She flinches back, acting on instinct to the attack.

With the spelled staff, she twirls and goes for an attack at his gut.

((I will be disappearing soon. Attending a football game and shall be unavailable for the next couple of hours))

With magic now entering the arena, Clark has much more incentive to block her strikes, and he has to focus on what she's doing and trying to read her attacks before they come. And while he wants to let in a strike to see just how hard she can hit him now, he's not particularly eager to let a blow to his stomach be the first one. Quick as he can without cheating, his sword darts between them to try to swat her staff away.

He also loosens up his stance, losing the solidly planted stature he'd been using before. Evasiveness will be his ally now, not standing his ground like the man-mountain he usually is.

((Works out okay! I'm going to work in an hour and I won't be back until later tonight.))

Exchanging stikes with Clark works just fine. It is good that he is reading her attacks and responding. And April notes how quickly he adapts. And is proud of him.

Noticing that his stance has loosened, April goes for a familiar tactic. The lower half of the staff directed at his knees, and the upper half at his chest.

Clark chooses to block the chest strike this time, and the result is that the combined impacts stagger him, and he has to move one leg back for balance lest he start toppling over.

Moving in a step, April presses the attacks this time each side of the staff going for a knee. Her goal to take the brick wall down.

Without superspeed, he can't block both strikes in time, and he swiftly finds himself falling backwards. His head bounces off the floor with a loud crack, and he deliberately goes limp, letting his thoughts go blank, playing possum. She tried seduction tactics to distract him, he's going to try to use her concern for him to catch her off-guard.

The rush of concern makes April drop the weapon. The crack had been loud. And even with his invulnerability, her first fear is that he has been hurt. Because of her. And she is not picking up any thoughts either.

"Clark?" She kneels down to check his pulse.

The crack, unfortunately for the owner of the villa, was the floor rather than his head. Fortunately the fall wasn't from any great height or the damage might be worse, and less explainable.

He feels a twinge of guilt at tricking her, but takes the opportunity when she draws near. His sword went flying when he landed, so he's unarmed, but he doesn't need it for this. He surges up, grabbing her outstretched arm to use her momentum to flip her completely over him, and then grab her in a headlock.

The possum attack gets her. And the first flash is a rush of stupidity for falling for it.

Stuck in the headlock. Her weapon too far away, and knowing that physical attacks would be useless against him, April feels another sensation. Defeat.

"Uncle."

He lets her go immediately. He doesn't exactly feel good about winning. "Sorry." Not about defeating her, but because he only got the upper hand through trickery. Someone more arrogant might gloat about not assuming your opponent is out because he's down, but not him.

"You could've used magic against me."

"Don't be sorry. It was a good tactic." April runs a hand through her hair. "A good lesson to remember too."

"I only know a couple of spells. I am no wiccan, it is harder for me."

"It feels like cheating," he admits. "If I was in a fight for my life, yeah, but... I don't know. A good lesson for both of us."

"Can you learn more and practice using them in combat? Or does it not work that way for you?" They haven't discussed magic much besides her use of levitation to assist him in flying, and he doesn't know how magic works in her world. Or in his, for that matter; the three witches weren't very chatty about it.

"It wasn't cheating." April reassures him.

"The thing with magic in this world is while I can easily find a spell and cast it, as long as I can read the text of the spellbook, collect the proper reagents, and properly pronounce the magic words."

"The dangerous part is using magic improperly. Without the right profiency."

"I can do the ones with rituals. But the ones that come from the heart... the ones that belong to the witches are just not part of my gifts."

He listens to her explanation, nodding in the right places. "So combat magic is a natural sort of thing, you either have it or you don't. I guess we'll need to get some weapons pre-spelled before next time," he suggests with a small, hesitant smile. He wants to do everything he can to give her the advantage, and magic is one of the less painful ways to even the odds.

He looks down at the floor where his head struck, and frowns a little. "I think I cracked the floor."

"You have been able to learn more with an even fight, so we will have to utilize the enchanted weapons."

She laughed. "The floor gets a lot of damage. Don't worry about it."

Standing, she offers him her hand. "Shall we continue the tour?"

He laughs a little too. "What's one more dent amongst thousands, huh? At least it won't be hard to explain if someone notices."

He takes her hand, levering himself up off the floor. "Should we put the weapons back first? And, uh, I can try to straighten that sword we broke."

"Such a polite guest," April chuckles. She picks up the good weapons, sliding the bent sword his way. Putting them away, there is still some latent adreline in her body. It makes her feel alive.

She will turn to watch him fix the sword. Her attraction for him is fueled by the demonstration.

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