First of all, what was up with the whole bizarre seduction thing in the earlier chapter? I must confess being a bit confused about the way you wrote that. In one scene Verrine is in the middle of her little act, and then suddenly with no warning we are in a completely different scene where they are planning the attack. I found this sudden change rather abrubt. I am not saying that you should have had explicit sex or anything but I do think that a smooth continuation would have been better. Right now it reads more like there is a part of the scene missing.

Now to the fight scene.

Most of the stuff was fun and well written. I liked Harrys use of magic and other stuff like Harry blocking a tank shell with a sword was funny to read about. Though I must agree with some of the problems that others like Taure brought up. Tessa does seem a bit off for two reasons.

First of all, as has already been said, she is just too powerfull here. Harry should have destroyed her relatively easily. Instead you have made her tougher than Nicodemus and Vesper.

Second, I found the way she acted a bit odd. I mean if I recall correctly from Small Favor, she is almost as old as Nicodemus which means she has been around for two millennia. Anyone who could survive that long must be quite good at surviving. However Tessa here certainly acts more like a fool. I mean here we have Harry, an extremely powerfull wizard who has already killed Nicodemus, Vesper and virtually all other denarians aswell. And also a wielder of the Sword of the Cross, a weapon specifically meant to destroy people like her.
And she just strolls in and starts chatting with Harry as though something like this happens every day. It is hard to believe that if she were truly so foolish and reckless, she would not have been killed by some knight or other a long time ago.

If you really want her to be this powerfull and reckless then I think you should give some justification for it. One possibility that does occur to me is that you could copy a bit from Dresden books and have Tessa drawing extra power from one of those ley lines or somesuch. Or she could have performed the kind of ritual that Dresden did in TC. I mean unlike with Nicodemus and Vesper, this fight is happening on her homeground. It would make sense that the reason she is so strong is that she is drawing power from more than just herself. That might also explain her cockiness if she is confident thanks to an extra powerboost or somesuch. We know that Tessa can do that since she was one of the people that used the leyline to imprison Ivy in Small Favor. This could easily be shown by Harry being confused at how strong she is and then Meciel for instance figuring that she is "cheating". Well its just a thought anyway.

Finally, what about Verrine? I mean the way its written you almost get the impression that she is gone for good with Harry almost being melancholy about it. But thats not the case at all here. Unlike Nicodemus&Tessa&Harry, the host was gone and Verrine was in the drivers seat. Which means that she is still trapped by the coin and could be brought back by just giving the coin to someone else. If Harry so desired, he could restore her within moments. Just apparate to a hospital somewhere, find a person in a coma or somesuch and touch the body with Verrines coin. We know from Michael that persons damaged like that can be instantly possessed with no need to tempt or corrupt the host. Or Harry could just do it the old fashioned way and give the coin to some weakwilled person who would be too feeble to resist Verrine. Ofcourse the question is, does Harry actually want her back?

I must say that I sorta agree here. For what is supposed to be one of the most powerfull artifacts around, the sword always seems to conveniently get knocked out of Harrys hand. I mean why the heck cant he just accio the damn thing?

Though I will say that it would not really fit with the whole holy-pure-good thing the sword has going for it for it to betray Harry. In Dresdenverse where Shezza got the swords from, they have been consistently portraid as artifacs that are truly good. I think having the sword stab(well not literally) Harry in the back would not fit well.

Neither would it fit for the sword to dump Harry the instant his usefullness is at an end. Besides, after all the importance given to Harry's status as a knight(Even got its own title), I would be kinda disappointed if at the end, the sword plot goes nowhere.

 

Yes but generally the Knight is supposed to benefit from the "Luck of God." The huge black hole thats about to consume Harry can't really be considered beneficial.

Shezza also mentioned a bit about divine intervention earlier which I missed, but it supports my point.

 

*Gapes at wall of text*
Datakim, I'm not really up to speed on the dresden universe so I'll take your word for it. But if Meciel is to be believed, the God of Shezza's universe isn't the nicest of guys.

Harry is a denarian and therefore an enemy of heaven, he also has the potential to become extremely powerful, the sword offers an easy way to get rid of him.

Jon: WHYYYYYYYYYY!??!?!

 

Something tells me Jon was the one who came up with the gravity word. I think everyone's hurt his feelings by being so critical sadface.

 

All that shows is that she's (a) got enough power to be on the White Council (b) has more skill than Harry Dresden.

It doesn't mean that she's the most powerful Denarian. Nor do I see anything there that's anywhere near HP's power. I mean, a few pages back we were discussing whether Harry could take down the Winter Lady. Tessa is powerful for what she is, yeah, but Harry's just in a different league <_<

 

Heck, its arguable if she is better than even Dresden.

In Small Favor we see Dresden blast her through the roof(literally) and then burn a rather large hole into her. Both with magic that she was unable to block. Now I suppose its possible that the second example was enhanced with soulfire but even so, compared to others like say the senior council members or the eldest gruff, Tessa did not come off as a huge powerhouse.

Heck, its even mentioned that Tessa is a student of Thorned Namshiel, implying that in some ways she is still an apprentice. She might not be weak compared to the average white council wizard, but compared to Harry, defeater of Nicodemus and Vesper and a wizard more or less equal to Voldemort/Dumbledore?

Now admittedly Shezza has taken liberties with Dresden canon before when required and thats fine, but it seems to me that if Tessa is really this kind of immensely powerfull wizard then it should have been foreshadowed in earlier chapters. Right now it kinda feels as though this new equal-to-Harry enemy comes out of nowhere.

 

So I just went back and read some of Harry's other fight scenes and now I realize that I really don't know what you guys are complaining about.

You're basically complaining that Tessa is too powerful because her fight scene with Harry is taking a relatively long time. During the Department of Mysteries, there was a fight with Verrine and one other crazy Denarian which, if you take into account document formatting, lasted almost as long as this fight so far, no one complained about them being more powerful than Nicodemus.

During the Nicodemus fight, Harry had another Knight and a well-trained True Wizard helping him. Harry wasn't nearly as powerful then as he is now, but still, with a Knight and a skilled True Wizard they barely got out of that fight alive.

Harry fought Vesper after running through the Department of Mysteries, fighting Death Eaters and other Denarians, and he ended up suffering massive internal damage. Vesper was weakened even before the fight, since her host was on its last legs suffering from Meciel's crazy decaying curse.

What's happened in this fight so far? Not much. All they've done is talk for a while and then throw spells at each other like it was dueling club all over again. Sure, Harry got thrown into a wall a few times, but that's nothing. This fight is not like Harry's other Epic Fights at all, he had to struggle and resort to desperate grappling with Nicodemus and Vesper while suffering from horrendous internal and external injuries. So far, Tessa is nothing, the scene is just long because it's one of those Arc Finishers.

EDIT: Incidentally, the scene where Harry and Tessa punch each other while trying to avoid getting sucked in by the 'black hole' reminds me of a Jackie Chan movie involving a giant fan and Nazi gold.

 

About the Sword of the Cross: it seems to me that the Sword slowly regressing it's influence in Harry's duels, conveniently making Harry to "forget" about it in a fight, or removing itself from equation early in a battle. I think the Sword already chosen it's new master - Amanda - and only sticking to Harry while he finishes off his powerful enemies.

 

That's like the retarded theory some people had that Ginny was the Heir of Gryffindor. While I give you (grudgingly) that Amanda is a competent witch (standing toe to toe with Bellatrix indicates that), she will never recieve one of the Swords. What would the point of it be?

 

Are you sure about that?

 

Repetition.

the

Neither


Oh come on, kill her already. It's third chapter of the fight, it's... well, too long.

 

Does this bitch ever die? Not that Im complaining. Need to find a way for Tessa and Meciel cause if Harry/Amanda falls through. Harry/Tessa would be so fucking great.

 

Not really.

At this point, she's just pissing me the fuck off. She's either more powerful than Harry, or as powerful. She's taking the hits... better than him, it seems. It's just ridiculous. I'm waiting for the place to get nuked, and it only ruffles her hair.

 

I say that she isnt really more powerful just 2000 years of experience. Sure Harry beat Vesper, a Denarian Lord, but Tessa is far better at magic.

 

The prebattle witty and self-aware banter lasted way too long. At that point it was very transparent. Harry was letting Tessa mouth off for several lines of dialogue just so that Shezza could make her a ’quirky’ character.

 

I dont get why everyone is complaining, every story needs a fun loving evil vilain(Harry cant get that role has a main charactor)because Voldemort, Nico and Vesper just dont fit that description. Give us more Tessa.

 

I agree, sort of. I didn't have any problems with the beginning of the fight, or the banter, but now that the Word has exploded, I expected her to be at least hurt. I'll trust Shezza though, I'm sure whatever is planned will be interesting to read at least.