With your gems, you are incredibly hard to compete against. Fine, that's granted.

You go too far with your talking of greatness, however. Remember, Threap, that had I been present for the ruby quest, given the format, I'd have taken it, and without much trouble.

Before you start blustering, remember that the ruby was quested through single combat. Then, remember that during the NEXT gem quest, when you ALREADY had the first gem, you died to me without much of a fight in single combat.

And then, before you say that I'd had to have then beaten the other strong fighters as well, to win the ruby, remember that in the quest for the pearl, I also defeated Kodiak, Demosthenes and Plaman in single combat. Ironically, Demosthenes, the smallest of the four, gave me far and away the most trouble.

Now, I know that this didn't occur. You have your gems. You're quite the beast with them--but hold your ego a bit more in check. Had things happened differently in other realms, and had others been around to check you through the earlier gem quests, you'd still be stuck with your basic guildskills.

In recap. Yes! You're a good fighter! I can't argue that, nor would I. But I'm beginning to think that you consider yourself the best combatant in the lands, past and present--that you have the greatest understanding of the combat system as well. I would certainly say that in that aspect, you do not.

I'm not holding myself up in that place at all, so your inevitable response directed at my fighting ability will be quite irrelevant. Keep that ego in check. And really, what's going to happen when you fail to be ordained for the third time, and you return to mortal status without the gems that you now completely rely on?

I think the wind will spurt from your balloon quite quickly, as you have to reteach yourself to fight without two, three, four more skillsets.

Battlemage Fistandantilus

Written by my hand on the 7th of Midsummer, in the year 1135.