A trail of deep fire encircled you as you spun your stave around you in large, heavy arcs.

"I think I got quite lucky with my relic." You chuckled to yourself "I've always been a fan of staves, but one that can shoot fire out of it is obviously quite an improvement on the original design." Again you spun the stave into a wall of fire that surrounded you quite closely, yet you could not feel the heat, but this time you ended with a sharp thrust sending a large firebolt across the courtyard and hurtling into a training dummy.

"Every relic has it's uses." With a smug grin Strange hovered a mere few feet off the ground, his ruby red cloak floating nothing but majestically in the wind. "Some may not reveal themselves to the user until a strong bond has been formed between relic and user, some relics even seem to have an entire life of their own."

"Oh yeah for sure, they all seem... pretty cool for the most part, I guess. I'm sure you weren't so ecstatic when you found out that your relic was a... well a bit of cloth." Strange lowered himself to the ground, his smug grin had become quite a bit more serious.

"Hm, a bit of cloth? It's interesting that you put it in such a manner." Strange sniggered quietly to himself and ran the soft fabric through his scarred fingers. With no effort the left corner of the cloak flung towards you, grabbed the end of your stave and yanked it from your grasp. "Well it would appear that my piece of cloth has managed to take your relic and made it... well completely and utterly useless."

"That's not fair!" You protested as Strange tossed you back your relic. "If I was ready, you wouldn't have been able to do that... try again!" You held the stave as tightly as you could, as Strange strolled around you.

"Okay, are you ready this time?" You lowered your stance and watched as your knuckled turned white from your grasp, anxiously, you nodded. "Are you sure?" Strange wandered forward, with wide eyes his cape rose behind him, he outstretched his arms, grabbed your stave and ripped it from your hands.

"What! You didn't even use the stupid cloak this time." Strange could not help but struggle to contain his grin.

"Humble yourself, believe me, humility will take you far."

~*~

Written by Aaron.