Joshua had reached the door of the building. "Perhaps I should let my summons check out the building first..." Joshua thought. This being an unknown scenario, he decided to take the safe route.

"Ka tora No Vaki Noraka Kota, Ka tora No Vaki Nash Kota." Joshua summoned two swordsmen and two mages to investigate.

"Find out what's going on inside. If you see anything of interest let me know. If you are in danger, follow normal procedures." Joshua said to the team he summoned. Being made of pure black matter made it easy for them to hide in the shadows.

With this said the mages opened the door silently and the summons proceeded inside, searching for anything of interest. Joshua did follow them but he didn't leave the entrance. The summons were seeking the sounds made inside the building and it wouldn't be long before they would reach it's source.

Drake could feel the pressure in the air ease around him, the jabbing in his neck stopping and feeling a little lighter. He slowly got up, kneeling at first but then standing up completely there was a grimace of pain upon his face. His left hand was holding his rib cage and stomach-the stomach beginning to take a reddish color-and his right arm was limp at his side. "I don't care what happens to me! I just want blood. YOUR BLOOD! And I will have it no matter what! Just so you know I won't hold back EITHER! Mea Virga!"

Down below on the ground level, Drake's staff started to shake then bolting straight upwards crashing through the floor and floating next to Drake before grabbing it and twirling it with both hands. His arm was throbbing and more blood started to drip from it he held his staff in both hands and got in a ready position holding the staff threateningly towards the boy. Drake waited for a moment then attacked! Having a slight limp, he moved forward towards the boy and brought his staff down aiming for the stranger's collarbone.

Nick prepared for the worst as the staff rose from the below the floor. He thought Maddox would be quicker but it seemed he was still hurting a bit from before. Nick was able to roll to the side before the staff was swung down. He quickly got up and used his breath of fire on the floor between him and Maddox. He was fighting more seriously but he still did not want to hurt this guy anymore, there was no need for it go that far. There was now a path of fire separating Nick and Maddox. "You know people usually confuse courage with stupidity. Try not to do anything stupid..." Nick said as his eyes began to glow green. He let out a low growl as a sort of warning for Maddox to what he was getting into.

As Joshua's shadows wondered the building, there was more shouting. Joshua could make out some of the words. This was a fight, and it seemed that he was just in time for it to begin.

"Shadows, the fight is on the second floor. I want to know who are fighting and why." Joshua transmitted his thoughts to the summons. All of them immediately moved towards the second floor to investigate. Their movements were perfectly silent. One of the shadows looked into the room where the two were fighting. It notified Joshua that there was a fire though the people who were fighting were not clearly visible.

"Interesting. If that fire spreads through the house the whole building could collapse." Joshua thought to himself. "This could be interesting..." His thoughts began as to why they were fighting and at what reason there was to go all out in a place like this.

Right before Drake could deliver the blow, his opponent rolled to the side leaving a few broken floorboards from where he stood. Drake swung his staff to where the boy rolled but a row of fire divided them the tip of his staff being caught on fire, more blood dripped from his arm he started to cough up blood as well his complexion getting paler and his green eyes getting drowsy. He knew that he would eventually collapse from the loss of blood.

The boy said some words, which sounded miles away from Drake but he could still hear the last bit "Try not to do anything stupid..." his opponent's eyes started to glow green and he let out a low growl in warning, the growl seeming dragon like. "I'm not scared of you. Hell I know i'll die from blood loss pretty soon or at the very least go unconscious so I might as well go all out!" Drake was leaning on his staff when he said this, he reached for his dagger and threw it into the flames hoping to at least injure the guy.

He reached for his other dagger, spinning it in his right hand moving it from the right to the left, small flames emitting from it. "Ritu Rinar Raterar! Omne flammans flamma purgatus, domine extinctionis et signum regenerationis, in mea manu ens inimicum edat! Flagrantia Rubicans!" Drake knew it was a weak spell but it was only a distraction until the main event.

Nick heard the words coming from Maddox and now he knew, this guy was stupidly brave. "So you'll die fighting me just because i said some mean things... that sounds pretty stup- Agh." Nick did not finish the sentence as a dagger impaled him on his left arm. He grunted ad he quickly pulled the dagger out. "Have it your way then." With the dagger in his right hand Nick pulled back and threw the dagger as hard as he could to where Maddox. Nick could barely make his figure through the fire and he could tell where he was by the sound of his voice. As Nick threw the dagger he chanted, "Incrementum gravitatis quinque!" Nick tried to increase the gravity around Maddox so that he wouldn't be able to dodge the attack.

The shadows heard everything being said and stealthily moved into the room. They were slowly getting a better idea of who was fighting and what kind of magic users they were.

"The fire is slowly spreading through the house... Despite the fact that this is getting interesting, this isn't going to end well." Joshua thought as he saw flames in the next room over. He figured that neither of the two fighting would be paying attention to the consequences. At this rate, the whole house will collapse. Depending on what they do next, it could be sooner than later. Joshua decided to move away from the fire and exit the home. He did, at least have his shadows inside.

Drake could hear the yell coming from his opponent knowing that his dagger hit it's mark. He was getting weaker by the second staggering a couple times, growing paler, and sweat was dripping from his face-but that could have been from the intense heat of the flames. They were spreading faster now, the flames at least 12 feet high-as high as the ceiling-and wood was beginning to fall from the ceiling, there were stray flames which licked Drake's arms and fingers leaving scorch marks on them.

Then out of the flames came his dagger spinning like a saw towards his face, right in the nick of time Drake dodged the dagger being impaled into his right leg. "ARGH! I think it's time I finished this once and for all!" Drake pulled the dagger out of his leg and threw it on the ground sticking it in the breaking floor boards, he put his second dagger in its sheath and reached for his staff. He heard the boy say a few words and the gravity around Drake started to increase, pressuring him down onto his knees but he didn't care and began to chant his most powerful spell, which afterwards would leave him unconscious for sure.

Reaching out with his staff, Drake began to chant "Ritu Rinar Raterar! Gather o spirits of darkness and fire, merge with the spirits of lightning and wind to destroy my enemies with incredible power! Acerbus Tempestas Fulgur: Flamma Vortex!" A flaming tornado with black lightning formed sucking the fire into it and blasting a hole threw the side of the room with a loud BOOM.

Nick saw as a tornado began to form in the small room, made out of dark matter. Nick could feel himself being pulled in but was able to stand his ground, however the flames that were separating Nick and Maddox were now being consumed by the tornado, it was now a dark fiery lighting tornado of doom. Nick whistled in astonishment, "Wow, that's a pretty cool attack." Nick said as he stood infront of the tornado, however he did not have time to be amazed as this was a rather dangerous situation.

Nick crossed his arms in a defensive position and quickly began his dragon transformation before they tornado reached him, but he was a tad late. About midway of transforming the tornado reached him and sent him flying through the wall to the outside of the house with a big explosion. While falling to the backyard Nick finished his transformation as he landed on the ground in his dragon form. "Ow ow ow ow" Nick thought as he was hurting. That attack was much more powerful than he thought it would be, if he had taken that attack in human form he might've not been able to stand. Nick had burn wounds all over his body but it wasn't anything too serious, however due to the pain he knew he should stop fighting, or he would end up like Maddox. Nick got to his feet and flew back to the room where he just was, noticing how the room was all burnt and destroyed. Maddox was still on his apparently still conscious for a little while longer. Nick slowly walked up to him looking hims straight in the eyes, "You did good." Nick told him telepathically before he fell unconscious.

Nick was about to transform back to human and look for first aid, when he suddenly got a whiff of a scent that was a bit familiar to him. The scent was calm and dark at the same time, just like someone he had met not long ago. "Don't you think it's time you came out of hiding shadow summoner, or should I say Joshua instead." Nick told Joshua telepathically now knowing that he was here. "Come here and help me with this guy."

Joshua was away from the house when the tornado went off. He knew what was happening because of his shadows but with that attack he was cut back to one shadow mage who was outside of the danger zone. He saw a dragon fly out the wall and knew who it was at that point. It wasn't long until the dragon returned to the room to see his opponent. When Joshua heard the telepathic thought he knew he was found out.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Dragon." He knew that Nick would be awaiting a response. "I found you're fight amusing."

Switching frequencies, he started to talk to his last shadow. Luckily he could hold this shadow stable enough so it wouldn't vanish at a time like this. "Let me take control of you." Joshua told his summon. Joshua was far enough away that there was no need for him to go back into the house but his shadow would suffice.

Finding a safe spot, Joshua hid and took control of his shadow. The shadow walked into the room, under Joshua's control. "We should get out of this house." The summon spoke in Joshua's voice. "Toraga." He spoke and a shadow wall appeared underneath the unconscious man. With the concentration that Joshua had he slowly moved both his wall and the unconscious man with it towards the giant hole in the wall. More rubble started to collapse from the ceiling as they moved. The building hadn't much more than a minute before it would completely collapse. He would waste no time with getting this man out of the building. This whole experience was interesting to him and Joshua was curious to see who this powerful mage was.

Nick wasn't surprised that the ever so cautious Joshua would be using his shadow in this situation instead of coming himself, he was probably a bit farther away. As Joshua gave the warning about the house Nick started hearing the cracks, as if this place was gonna fall in any moment. Nick quickly undo his dragon transformation and transformed back into a human to ease the weight on the house. He followed the shadow to the outside as he jumped down from the second floor and started walking, stretching his arms and legs so that he could feel better.

As he kept following the shadow he looked back at the house, thinking back to when he met Maddox. Maddox seemed angry that Nick was stealing but he did not seem to care much for the diamonds, did he think Nick was in there to steal something else. Does that mean that there is something of greater importance in that house. If that was the case then it would only take a couple of minutes before that thing was buried down in a pile of rubble. "Hey you think you can wake him up Joshua?" Nick asked the shadow.

The shadow was safely out of the building with the unconscious person. Same with Nick. "Just give me a couple minutes, I'll get him up." The shadow said setting the wall down. Within moments it vanished and the unconscious man was laying on the ground. They were far enough from the house that any debris wouldn't be a problem.

It was at this point Joshua released the shadow from his control and told it to heal the unconscious man. Though it wasn't fully tested yet, the combat mage could theoretically use the shadow blast and change the properties of the shadow to heal instead of damage. "Nori." Spoke the shadow. A shadow ball slowly moved towards the man and as predicted hit him as though being cooled by water. This cooling effect would not only clean the wounds but with enough time wake up the unconscious man. Joshua gave it a couple minutes before he woke up.

With Joshua regaining control of his body he decided to explore the soon to collapse house. He was on the opposite side of the building than his shadow and the others so he could stealthily make his way into the house and wouldn't be at risk of debris with his shadow swarm. "Ka Tora No Vaki Insara." He said as he approached the house.

Right when Drake's opponent flew out the hole made by his tornado, Drake was sure he'd won. Its a good thing too by now he must have lost at least 30% of his blood if not more, and was about to go unconscious his eyes looking deary and weak his usually tanned skin looking very pale, sweat was dripping all along his body soaking his clothes and hair. "I won...I beat him I-" he coughed, blood coming from his mouth and down his lips "Looks like i'm gonna die here. At least I got to come home before I did." Drake was leaning against his staff when a dragon came flying towards the hole in the room, with burn marks along it's body it also vaguely looked like the boy who insulted his family...."A dragon? I must be hallucinating because it look's just like-wait a minute!" Drake finally put two and two together. "Damn! He survived I need to-I need to-I need..." His eyes were feeling heavy, his limbs becoming lead, his own clothes were weighing him down he was about to go unconscious. Right before Drakes eyes closed the dragon looked him right in the eye and spoke something to him-it felt almost like the time he help save that one tavern in Bosporus-"You did good." Drake slipped into unconscious.

"There were voices. So many voices! I can't handle it! I have to get out of here!" Drake was inside a pitch black room, red lining some of the walls if you actually touched it you could tell it was blood. His family crest was printed on the wall in front of him except the red dragon on it was black and bloody a sword surrounded by green flames was in the dragons heart, the other sword was surrounded by black lightning but the blade was covered in blood being held by a man in a black robe. "What is this place? Where am I? What's happen-"[/i] Drake's thoughts was interrupted by a sudden voice, a voice that sounded superior and confident. "You have been found guilty for the act of treason against the Confederation."

"You can't do this! We're innocent! YOU framed us!" A new voice said, this one sounding assertive and fatherly. "Do you see they're lies! This just proves these two traitors should be sentenced to death!" "Please stop! We have done nothing traitorous! Just let us free." This voice sounded motherly and caring, like no matter what you were safe. "I'm afraid, looking at the evidence, you are both guilty of treason. You are by sentenced to death. Case dismissed."

Drake awoke with a jolt, immediately falling back down onto the grass there was a huge throbbing in his ribs and arms, his head felt like it was about to explode."Argh...My head! My ribs! Ow." said Drake. "What happened? Where am I?"

Nick sat down next to Maddox as he waited for Joshua, it was weird since his scent did not seem to be getting any closer, he was probably inside the house. He wondered what would happen now, Maddox might attack him again, and Nick didn't want that to happen again... so soon.

As Maddox began to move and open his eyes Nick kneeled next to him making sure he wouldn't pull something. "Easy there buddy. You got pretty hurt back there in the house. And thanks to you so did I, hahaha. But don't worry, thanks to Joshua you should be fine in a while." Nick said with a concerned tone. "Look I'm sorry for what I said in there, I didn't really mean it. I was just trying to get you a bit worked up... but it was heartless of me to say those things... So again I apologize." Nick said with a sincere tone, he didn't expect for the fight to go as far it did.

"Now there is one thing that is bothering me about our little encounter. When you saw you looked a bit relieved when you saw that all i was stealing was your families diamonds, does that mean there is something far more valuable in that house?? Cause if there is you better tell me, or it may get lost in a couple of minutes."

The shadow continued to use the shadows to heal the man and it seemed to work as he was now somewhat conscious. Joshua was at the entrance of the burning house and entered through a damaged wall. With the swarm around him he was covered from falling debris and fire. He walked into a room that had little fire in it. It was a large room with lots of paintings in it. There was a piano in this room as well as some other decorations. It was a room to entertain guests.

The fire did spread rapidly as it reached the room but something seemed to call to Joshua, as if there was something important in this room to get. He looked around and even as the fire spread he walked around as if it was a empty house on any other day. He walked past the piano and along a wall of paintings, as he moved the fire was slowly pushed away from the swarm.

Joshua stopped when he heard a loud crack. A beam holding the second floor was breaking. A part of the roof collapsed and caused part of the hallway to collapse as well. The second floor was slowly collapsing. This didn't affect Joshua too much but he was looking for something in the house, though he wasn't sure what yet. He continued to walk, this time paying more attention to what he was looking at. He thought he might be getting closer to what it was he might be looking for. He heard another crack and some more crashing, the continued to collapse. This room seemed very sturdy and didn't have a floor above it so Joshua figured this room was the least likely to collapse. He still had time to find whatever he might be looking for before everything was lost.