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Alexis lifted a lip and flashed fang, a low growl bubbling out of her throat. she shifted her eyes to the side, hunting out her adopted daughter. She spotted her standing off to the side and Alexis's eyes narrowed. Her growls ceased and she concentrated. The air in the training field turned steamy and misty, the humidity going up. Alexis could feel sweat trickling down her face, but the steam helped obscure her shadow. She darted off to the side, swords in her hands. She disappeared into the steam, using it to mask her scent and location.

Alexis stayed where she was, shrouded in the mist. She sent some of it out, questing for Mercury. "This was hardly the greeting I was expecting, Mercury," Alexis said softly, knowing her daughter would be able to hear her. "When, exactly, were you planning on telling us you were back?" The tendrils of steam wove themselves around the trees, clammy and moist.

Nexus' breath slowed, and he took pose. He began to follow through a series of forms by himself among a series of dummies and obstacles. He began at a painfully slow pace, calming himself. Then, as he progressed, he picked up a furious pace. His emotions becoming intertwined with his motions, every stretch and pull a movement of fury or desire. He stopped after a few minutes and then chanted in Latin a single word, overflowing with power. "Procella!"

Lightning struck his outstretched arm and he emerged from the flash wielding a hand and a half sword of both elegant beauty and natural killing design. Nexus struck then, flying from strike to strike with ease. His strikes sounded thunderclaps, and the dummies splintered under his fury. The level of his control seemed to grow with the level of emotions he was feeling. His power grew exponentially until his very movements through the air caused the ground to crack and dust to fill the section of the training field which he occupied.

Stopping again, he allowed Procella to dissipate into energy. He held the energy then, attempting a new technique he had devised in the wilds. He aimed a single palm thrust then at the dummy that stood before him. The energy tore through the dummy, breaking the very molecular bonds that held it together. The dummy exploded then, ripping apart the ground where Nexus stood. He harnessed the explosion then, and focused the energy into chaining the reaction with the materials around him. Nexus increased the size of the reaction until it engulfed his area, his very will alone keeping him from losing control and destroying himself. He directed all the energy then into a single sphere. The reaction withing became so compressed that the forces within rebounded against Nexus' controlling barriers as they contracted, amplifying the amount of power until he held in his hand a sphere naught but an inch in diameter. Then, with great effort Nexus assimilated the sphere to his person. Time itself seemed to slow with the nature of his new power. Temporary as it may be, he now had a way of sustaining the true limit of his power without draining his body of energy in naught but seconds.

He considered the tree standing before him for a moment and smiled. To eyes of any observing he suddenly vanished appearing a moment later several yards on the other side of the tree. Nexus swung his arm, and the tree exploded into a million small fragments as the gust of wind Nexus summoned tore through it. What he had summoned then would have killed him before, now his reserves hadn't even appeared to diminish.

Nexus laughed and yelled, "For I am the storms breath, the earth shall shudder beneath my fury!" Gathering all of the extra energy in his reserve, he imbued himself with the elemental power he had used in the fight against Phaereon. Instead of just taking on elemental attributes however, he simply became the elements themselves. His feeling of the universe around him no longer felt like controlling some wild beast, but as if nature itself were an extension of his body. With merely a glance a twisting column of fire emerged from thin air, and then vanished replaced by a chilling cold that instantly froze several now severely burned trees until they crumbled into dust. Where he stepped, the very rocks rose in opposition of gravity from the power seeping across the ground where he tread.

Nexus was still wary however, careful to not consume more power than he had. He found then that he need not worry, as his reserves dipped reasonably. Ending the form he noted his success. He sat a moment then, pondering whether or not he was the first to discover the ability to bolster his strength. He shivered, remembering the frightening stories of his ancestor's powers. Will I become so fearsome? I may be bound to the fate of my line.

He looked around, smelling the air. Something almost exotic to his senses caught him then, sending his mind reeling. His passion grew, but he suppressed it. I know this scent, I've smelled it before...

Nexus walked then in the direction of the fight between Alexis and Mercury.

Nexus stepped out from behind her tree then speaking quietly, "Perhaps I could join you? It may be best to avoid being found until she is calm again, no?" He hadn't known she had returned, and frankly was quite surprised to see her so suddenly. His confusion and desire mixed, only truly showing in his eyes.

"GO away , you will give me away you are talking to a tree you know get out of here"she whispered fiercely from the bark. She knew she was going to be killed until she heared her twin ripping through the woods on the back of what seemed to be a bull?!?!

"I'm not talking to bark, I'm talking to Mercury. You stand out like a sore thumb to my nose, you should know. Exotic almost in this forest." He smiled slightly at her predicament and leaned against the tree nonchalantly right next to her, shoulders touching. " Besides, is that any way to say hi," he asked to the air softly, looking anywhere but at her now as if to play into the fact that she wasn't there. "You know, I don't think you need worry," he nodded in the direction of Whisper's shout, "she seems to have the center of the stage now."

He kept a straight face for about a second and then laughed. This was not normal greeting tradition for Nexus, but he made an exception for her. " You know, its been so long since I last saw you... Feels like an age. We should catch up..." He smiled and stayed still then, knowing that he should probably try not to draw Alexis' attention.

Alexis spun and rolled her eyes. Her daughters always did have to make the largest entrance they could. Stepping forward, she slammed her right foot into the ground, kneeling at the same time, her hands coming resting out in front of her her, palms up. The mist around the bull's fist shivered and then coalesced, forming into ice spears. They shot upwards into the bull's unprotected stomach, throwing it forward, and sending Whisper hurling through the air. Alexis leaped up and gripped her by ankle, eyes burning with dark amusement. "I think we need to reintroduce your sister to my "sense of humor", don't you?" Alexis snapped her arm forward and aimed Whisper at the tree where Nexus and Mercury had been speaking. "I'm not old enough yet to lose my sense of hearing, daughter."