[.Creepy........CREEPY.][Open]

[Four Fiends]

The Fiend of Earth followed through with his clumsy swing, making neither noise nor reaction as his arm swung through empty air. He was not surprised though. He was never surprised when his attack failed to connect anymore. He was, after all, the slowest of the Fiends. And the weakest. Cagnazzo and Barbariccia made plenty sure to remind him of that every chance they had. He was nothing more than a collection of dust, bone and flesh made to muscle his way to victory. That was why he was surprised when the pawn before him suddenly took on a look of fatigue.

Why is this? An aftereffect of the Malebolg? Hm, so even he lacks the strength to hold it. How unsightly.

The man seemed to get over his affliction quickly, and proceeded with a counter. Unfortunately, his choice of riposte would prove to be largely ineffective. Even as the strike connected with Scarmiglione’s crown, he felt nearly nothing. Blunt-force attacks, as Sephiroth would come to find, were not the way to go with a being consisting of dead nerve. He had thought right to aim for the head though, and the slightest bit of pressure was left behind as a result of the man’s inhuman abilities. In the long run though, he was better off trying to hack him to pieces.

Scarmiglione took a single step, readying himself and placing his body into an almost telltale position. The arm opposite of the moving leg shot out, attempting to strike Sephiroth with his palm in a piston-like manner.

[Sephiroth]

Sephiroth staggered backwards once his attack had hit..even after all that physical training without Masamune he still seemed pretty rusty in his hand-to-hand combat manouvers. So dodging was his only benifactor here.
He managed to dodge Scarmiglione's attack again, and noted the fact his attacks proved effectless on him...he might have to use Masamune afterall...but he'd rather wait until things got really out of hand. If this creature was as slow as he thought, Sephiroth could easily just run away with a simple jump and fly out of a window. But running away from a fight would ruin his image, especially with Yuffie about and the monster in challange looking quite pathetic.
Even though the one-winged-angel could sense power, he figured the creature was too slow to use it to full effect. Which proved useful to Sephiroth as an advantage...since his main skill in combat was speed.

"You're not very fast, are you?" Sephiroth mocked, before rubbing the area the Black Materia was embedded in as if to sooth a slight pain there...panting lightly...

"I thought you'd be desperate for the materia, at least desperate enough to try harder!!"

((sorry, sick at the moment and I can't type anything without sneezing to death. ))

[Four Fiends]

Scarmiglione’s arm remained outstretched, his hollow eyes following Sephiroth as he moved away from the blow. It seemed that, for the moment, his prey was of a far greater speed than himself. While the Fiend could track his movements, he was unable to keep up with them on a physical level. Steam leaked from the eternal lipless grin; the only real sign that he held any frustration. At the same time, however, he had no illusions of total defeat.

“Effort....not needed....Malebolg will kill....before I do....”

This was, of course, a direct jab at the apparent weakness going through the man’s body. Scarmiglione could not confirm that the Black Materia was actually the cause of the fatigue, but he did not think it was such a long shot as theories went. If the guy got too troublesome before his movements ceased, there were still a few tricks he had yet to reveal.

The zombified corpse of a body pivoted to face the silver-haired man, raising the extended arm above his head all the while. With the same force as his other attacks, he brought the arm down in a smashing motion.

(Shiiiiiiit! D=)

[Yuffie]

This monster didn't seem to be interested in her,only in Sephiroth and the black materia.She noticed him rubbing the area where the materia was embedded,kind of a strange place to have it but she had to focus on getting to that safe.Besides it seems this wasn't her fight,so that in a way was good for her because it was going to be a clean run for that room where the safe was.

"I hate to ruin this party,but you seem to be handling this monster Sephiroth besides I came here to get those papers in Hojo's safe".

Yuffie put her weapon away and quickly stood up,giving a salute to the silver haired man she quickly like a bat out of hell got out of there and raced up to the room with the safe.Once she got these it was back to see Hojo and finally find out the truth about what happened to the memories she couldn't remember from the war.This place was a ruin,but she finally managed to reach the right room because there it was.

"Oh yeah score......".

Pushing aside some debris,Yuffie quickly reached the safe and went to the job of unlocking it all the while looking over her shoulder.She heard a click and the safe opened,looking inside she saw there was a bunch of papers.Being the curious girl she was,Yuffie took this chance to take a sneak peek at what was so important about these documents.

"No way,these papers contain......I better tell Vinnie about these but not that silver haired freak".

One question where was she going to put them,folding them up the ninja put them in her pouch on the side of her belt.Oh wow these documents we're importent,no wonder Hojo wanted these so badly.Making her way to the edge of the room,she peeked out to look at what was going on.

"Now getting back out,how we going to do this".

ooc:That sucked

[Sephiroth]

((Gah. this is going to be lame!))

Sephiroth raised an eyebrow at the creatures remark on the Black Materia, and how it may actually kill him rather than kill his enemies. It would have been a laughing matter if he wasn't in so much pain, it was unsettling that an artifact of which caused no problems previously had suddenly started to react violently. If mother was rejecting him, was the materia doing the same? If so, he had to fix it...quickly.
Yuffies departure made fighting the monster a bit easier, for some odd reason he didn't want to fight full-throttle in front of the Wutainese girl...most probably to keep his main skills under wraps. But at this rate, his body would probably strain and become useless for a period of time. The creature he was against was slow, but it had a point. If Sephiroth felt this much pain from the materia in just a slow and easy-going battle, then an intense fight against the likes of Cloud or even Kadaj could actually kill him.
The risk wasn't worth taking. He had to find out how to stabilise the black materia.

"If the black materia is going to kill me, I would rather hide it somewhere safer and extend my life." Sephiroth huffed, opening his wing and leaping backwards from the next attack Scarmiglione was about to throw at him. Well, slam at him.
As he remained floating in mid-jump, Sephiroth caught a glimpse of the Yuffie girl again. She was looking for an exit as usual. But right now, the front door was her only option. Unlike himself, whereby he had multiple escape routes.
But none where to be taken right now. Only if the black materia starts to react more violently will fleeing become an option. But still, no risk should be taken, so Sephiroth chose to summon Masamune and take down an onslaught. Grasping the handle of his blade with both hands, he folded his wing and began to decend quickly, the long blade held above his head ready for a 'choping-slice' manouver that would cut almost anything clean in half.
If this attack missed or proved uneffective, fleeing may be his only option.

((I told you it was crap.))

[Four Fiends]

Scarmiglione’s expressionless visage tracked the opposing man as he flew away from his strike. Though one could not tell by looking, he was mildly surprised by the presence of a wing. It seemed that his inhuman nature extended into the cosmetic domain after all. It somewhat annoyed the Fiend of Earth that his prey could fly, but that was a not a serious matter. After all, Scarmiglione had yet to give it his all. So far he had only demonstrated brute strength.

What did interest the Fiend was the presence of the sword, which Sephiroth now seemed to hold. It would seem that he was being taken somewhat seriously now, and the choice of weapon would be a correct one. While it was true that Scarmiglione could regrow or reattach fallen limbs, he could be hacked apart and crippled before then. What was more, a pierced skull would be the end of him. The brain was the only remaining vital point, and if it was destroyed then that would be it. As such, Scarmiglione moved to avoid the attack with noticeably greater urgency, concerned that the fast movements of the man would be unavoidable.

The large husk of a body managed to sidestep the blow, but it was not a complete dodge. Only when he heard a dull “thud” did the Fiend realize that he had lost his left arm. He raised the stump, staring at it with his dark sockets. There was no pain, there was no blood.

(Terrible, I say!)

[Sephiroth]

((Mine is super-strong-bad-tacular! D= ))

Sephiroth was fairly suprised at how the creature seemed to move a bit faster to avoid his attack, and rightly so..it usually proved lethal on 98% of all foes...the 2% being the annoying Weapons whom he never got a chance to fight against and those little Cactuars who dodged all the time. But still, Sephiroth was satisfied his attack did some damage. But at a cost of cutting off the creatures arm, the one-winged-angel suddenly became wrenched in pain again. Most likely because of the tension he had whilt he built up energy for the attack. So the Black Materia was draining his energy, even for fairly meelee attacks now?
This was dangerous. Too dangerous.

"A nice...*pant*... move, but still not...*pant*... fast enough." Sephiroth panted, some feathers lightly dropping from his wing.
He was being sapped of energy, quickly and painfully, he had to think this through...otherwise, he could die.

((SUCKY!!))

[Yuffie]

Yuffie watched from the doorway of the room she just came out of,this battle was getting intense but she couldn't stay.As she slowly started to move the ninja noticed something about the one winged angel,some of his feathers they we're dropping from his wing and onto the floor.She knew very well what was causing that,but would he even listen to her if she yelled out the problem well she had to try.Running out of the room and onto the railing of the staircase that led to the front door,she crossed her arms with disappointment.

"Sephiroth if you keep using that black materia your gonna die,leave this battle while you still can".

She did a backflip in the air and landed with a thud on the old wooden floor,right near the front door and looked back.If he listened to her then alright for him,if he wanted to be a stubborn fool and let himself be sucked dry by the black materia it was his problem not hers.Of course she also had her problem with that too,Hojo did something else to her but in Costa Del Sol when she went there to confront him so she gave a warning to Sephiroth.

"Listen Sephiroth you may think you have all the shards,but you don't I also have one in my leg planted there by Hojo himself but it doesn't trigger as easily as yours infact I don't think mine has even awakened yet it's all here in the documents I stole well ta".

Yuffie quickly bolted for the door,opening it up and heading out turning her head at the last momment giving a smug look to the one winged angel and then she was gone.Off to phone the good professor,and get the answers she truly seeked.

((There's a twist for you,and Yuffie is out now))

[Sephiroth]

Sephiroth turned his attention to Yuffie after hearing her deliver the advice to leave the fight, if even she noticed how lethargic he was then the problem was obvious to the monster as well. Fleeing was his last option...and hiding the materia somewhere outside of his body was his only method of keeping it safe without killing himself.
He withdrew his attack with Masamune, stepping backwards as the sword vanished in thin air and several more feathers dropped from his wing. He was panting heavily, and his vision was rapidly deteriorating. Thankfully the Wutain girl caused a distraction from the discomfort he felt, all he felt now was anger and a feeling of dissapointment within himself.
How could he not sense the materia? Was it possible her peice was dorment or half-baked?
He couldn't think about it for long, so quickly grasping his cloak and opening his wing to its fullest stretch, Sephiroth smirked and faced the creature as Yuffie made her exit. He knew who to target next. The only problem was, would he find his next target? And with the manipulative nature of Hojo, he wouldn't be able to attack him quite so easily. He'd need assistance.
Kadaj and the remnants where no use to him now, they had cut their strings...Cloud was still hanging in there, free from manipulation of course...but still mentally weak enough to trick into following a plan.

"I took great interest in this battle and what information you gave me, simply by just endorsing in combat, but I can't stay any longer." Sephiroth chuckled, before flaping his his wing to enable liftoff from the ground.

"As for the Black Materia...you'll never find all of it. And neither will Hojo..."
And with those last words, Sephiroth forced a powerful swoop of his wing and flew out the window, smashing the glass as he escaped quickly, heading in the direction of Edge/Midgar's continent. Almost the exact opposite of where yuffie was heading most likely.
Sephiroth needed Clou first, Hojo would have to wait until he had persuaded the blonde to assist him. IF the blonde was still alive or fit for combat.

(Nice! And Sephy's gone now. Sorry Rufus. Just had to push this along a little.)