Post by Alina Rybalka on Jan 1, 2021 1:00:52 GMT -5
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[break][attr="class","nikki101"]WE CAN ALL AGREE THAT VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE
[break][attr="class","nikki102"]BUT IN THE END, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY
[attr="class","nikki109"]January 1st [break]
27AV [break][break]
She was being followed. [break][break]
Alina didn’t quite know for how long, but she noticed it not long after leaving an affiliate gun store that she was doing frequent business with. Looking back was pretty standard every so often when moving around, especially in the Wind District, so she noticed the person out of place pretty quickly most likely… and this person was there every time she turned around, wearing a suit to blend in. He was a good distance behind her, but even from quick glances and waiting at crosswalks occasionally the wolf faunus knew for a fact that he was in communication with someone and had weapons in the left side of his suit jacket. The arm swing on his left side was shorter to guard whatever it was, and the left side of his jacket sagged from the weight once she was looking for it. Upon going up or down stairs, or going up or down from a crosswalk he would also reach a hand to the inside of his jacket on that side to make sure it was still there. How she knew he was talking with someone else was simple, because the guy had been on a phone call for the past hour while walking around. Judging by the fact that he was still following her, it was safe to assume that he didn’t know that she knew about it. [break][break]
Alina was still dressed in her work clothes, or more accurately her schmoozing in the Wind District clothes. It was a wool three-piece suit, dark gray with a mid-gray pinstripe with red lining running down the ensemble. The jacket was double breasted with a double back vent, two flap pockets, two inside chest pockets, ticket pocket on the right, peak lapels, and six buttons in the front with five on the cuff. The trousers had a squared front extension waistband, a flap watch pocket to the front, angled side front pockets and jetted back pockets to go with eight belt loops around the waist. The single-breasted waistcoat had paisley lining, a buckle back, two front jetted pockets, a double back vent, and a five-button front. [break][break]
She didn’t have any weapons on her, which was unfortunate but not a dealbreaker. She had a pair of her plant dust enhanced gloves in her inner pocket like she always did, which would be enough for whatever this was. It was towards the end of the day, and she deviated her usual route back to the Ground District to some alleys where they wouldn’t be disturbed, and to her surprise when she turned around once they were out of earshot of others the idiot was still like fifteen meters behind her. She reached out her left hand, and before the guy could really react she snapped her fingers and incinerated the left side of his suit jacket. She had expected it to be a gun, but to her surprise it exploded into a truly absurd amount of steam that soon covered the entire alleyway. The wolf faunus pulled the white, plant dust infused dress gloves out of her suit pocket and put them on just in time to see out of the corner of her eye a bunch of grenades fall onto the ground around her – from above somewhere… she couldn’t see due to all of the steam. Fucking hell, that must have been like ten grenades worth of steam – maybe more. Shit was dense so it would sit there in the air for a while, too, and she couldn’t spare the aura to burn it all out when she didn’t know what she was dealing with. [break][break]
She was fully expecting the attack to come from above at that point, given the volume of grenades… but they exploded not into shrapnel but instead in water. Holy fuck it was so much water. It shot out in every direction at high speeds and absolutely drenched Alina and disoriented her, enough to where she was legitimately caught off guard by the attack that followed. It was from directly behind her rather than from above, and only her reflexes and muscle memory prevented it from being a full-on hit to the spine rather than to the edge of her stomach. [break][break]
Whoever it was snuck up behind her and got a handful of hair before stabbing their sword right into her back, and her aura was reduced by almost a quarter by that initial strike alone. What they might not have banked on, though, was the fact that Alina’s hair was long enough for her to turn around while they grabbed the end of it and get hands on the enemy… hands that were shooting out fire at temperatures exceeding five thousand degrees Celsius to go along with the plant dust that emerged like napalm to coat the front of the attacker in flames. In a flash, though, the guy was just… gone. The steam dust was still overwhelming, and more and more water kept shooting out from probably more of the grenades. That would take the edge off of the napalm by hosing it off at high enough speeds to prevent the entire burn, but the fire had at least partially hit the guy and she knew for a fact she got a good bit of napalm on him at least initially. [break][break]
The second round of attacks was when Alina finally realized what his semblance was. He came up from behind her and she snapped her fingers to incinerate him, but then he disappeared and again only her reflexes prevented her from getting directly hit by the slash that followed behind her and the accompanying surge of lightning dust along the blade. She was able to get a kick out before he teleported again out of sight in the mass of steam, but it was only a glancing blow and his aura seemed to still be holding up really well all things considered. A bunch of lightning dust had gotten on her back from that which continued to shock her and cause pain, but she couldn’t exactly move or do anything about it at the present. An attack could come at any time, and she needed a plan. [break][break]
There was a delay, and a decently long one. Ten seconds or so with the lightning dust burning itself out on her back and ripping through her aura until there was only slightly above a third of it remaining. He was trying to be smart and wait to attack until after the lightning dust dissipated but made a mistake. It was efficient, sure, but it also gave Alina time to think of a counter. It gave her enough time to get into position for it, too, with her right foot back and pointed towards the side to make her harder to knock over and both arms away from her body with the thumbs and middle fingers of both hands pressed together. [break][break]
The next time the guy teleported in, Alina knew she had him. She caught on to what he was capable of doing, and dodged the incoming sword strikes completely as she snapped the fingers of both hands and blasted her semblance in all directions. Not very far in each direction, but the guy needed to be in melee range to actually slash at her even with teleportation and she bathed the area around her in flames roughly a meter deep in every direction as well as spreading the napalm from her gloves around everywhere for good measure. She caught him with the blast and dodged his attacks cleanly now that she knew how big his sword was and generally what his reach was, lighting up a good portion of his body in white flames and catching him with enough napalm to cover him from head to toe in the process. He activated the last two or three water grenades on himself as he staggered backwards as his red aura shattered into pieces, which threw off Alina’s kick to try and get the blade out of his hands right then and there. [break][break]
This was the first time she actually got a good look at him, now that the flames had dissipated the rest of the steam completely and the new steam arising from the burnt water from before was burned out of the air. The guy was taller than her by a lot, about a foot, and had a white grimm mask covering his face topped by black hair to go along with dark gray and red lamellar armor and an odachi held with both hands. The temperature shift was a bit disorienting, with the snow and residual ice on the ground melting due to it and so Alina didn’t even notice the attack behind her at first. Well, at least until the guy in front of her moved to avoid it. She saw his muscles switch as he moved to strafe, and she followed the strafe to her right just in time for a rocket propelled grenade to zip past her and explode at the end of the alleyway in a flashy enough manner that she knew damned well that this was a setup from someone high up the food chain – because if they were using RPGs like this it meant that there were no police in the area and they had done something to make sure the locals didn’t ask questions or rush over until the deed was done. What this did mean, however, was that the wolf faunus didn’t need to worry about being quiet or subtle at all. [break][break]
Alina turned her head slightly to incinerate the guy she should have killed earlier, turning him to ash in moments to prevent a second shot. The grimm mask guy charged while her head was turned, though, and managed a slash that definitely made some contact even with a pretty decent dodge and managed to get some lightning dust on her person. The wolf faunus backpedaled now that her back was clear and snapped her fingers to light the guy on fire, but he was quick enough to avoid the worst of it and his armor took most of the instant burns as it chipped away from the heavy damage caused by even momentary contact with flames of that magnitude. She landed a kick on his right forearm, but it was deflected partially by the remains of a piece of metal on the forearm that ended up being kicked off and absorbing much of the force behind the kick. Fuck, this guy was really good. Definitely a fixer for someone high up – and it was likely only the Council or the Artisan Guild could afford someone of this caliber. He came prepared to counter her napalm and had a semblance that made it impossible for her to fight at her preferred range, which forced her to fight in melee where she was just inferior compared to this guy who was not only packing a very strong dust enhanced weapon but was fast as well as durable and agile. He was definitely the strongest enemy she had faced since coming back to Mistral, and it wasn’t even close. [break][break]
With his aura broken, the guy was just bum rushing Alina over and over with that sword and risked everything on the assumption that she would crumble under continued pressure if he could just break her aura with one more blitz. Another solid hit that Alina was able to only partially dodge caused her white aura to break, but she was trained enough to be able to avoid the mental fog that came with that and slip away before the new round of lightning dust was discharged from the blade. The one from before still seared her suit jacket, however, and her kick while backing away crunched some metal into her enemy’s shin and caused it to visibly start bleeding as the metal punctured skin. [break][break]
She couldn’t use her dust gloves at this point due to not having any more fire to burn it with, so was definitely at a disadvantage. The guy charged again, and just when Alina thought she figured out his attack pattern he pulled out a vial of gravity dust from fucking somewhere and used it to reposition at the last moment to give a pretty solid slash that the wolf faunus was only able to avoid at the expense of her coat, which now had a giant cut through the right side along with a shallow gash along her ribcage. No lightning dust with this swing, though, which likely meant that he was out. Since he had a longer reach, the former soldier was only able to attack after he did and was able to get a roundhouse kick to his right elbow that smashed the remaining metal there and caused an audible crack as the metal rammed into his flesh and either broke the elbow or rammed the metal so far in there that it didn’t matter if it was broken or not judging by the blood coming out of that thing. The guy gasped in pain, of course, but was otherwise eerily silent… which was fine by her – she fucking hated blabbermouths wasting her time with their stupid philosophy when they were trying to kill her. [break][break]
At this point, Alina was starting to start breathing heavily but her combat ability wasn’t impaired just yet. The next attack was more telegraphed, with only one arm capable of holding the odachi and the other one much slower to grab the next vial of gravity dust. He used it to propel himself forward with a slash to Alina’s top left, and she stepped into the attack with her forearms meeting the blade partway as it cut through her clothes and skin in order to get close enough to land a savage kick to her opponent’s already injured shin that completely shattered the bone. For the first time, she heard his voice as he screamed in pain for the first time as his leg buckled beneath him and he fell forward. As he was falling the blade dug in slightly further in Alina’s forearms until she backed up and used the opportunity to give a good front kick with her reinforced boots right in the shoulder of his good arm to snap it out of place and cause him to scream a second time and lose his grip on his odachi, which clattered to the ground in an instant. [break][break]
Alina was bleeding at this point from both forearms and her right side, but nothing too bad. The cuts weren’t overly deep, and she managed to finish it before exhaustion really started setting in. Had the fight gone even a little bit longer, she might have been in big trouble as it went to full on attrition mode to the death. ”Not going to lie, I’m kind of insulted your employer thought you could kill me with just two people and some water.” she would say, almost conversationally as she kicked the odachi out of the fucker’s reach and started walking over to pick up the blade herself. [break][break]
”I’m not going to tell you anything.” the man coughed out, seemingly struggling to breathe through all the pain he was experiencing at the moment… what with the shattered shoulder and shattered shin and shattered elbow he must be barely staying conscious with her aura broken as well. Had a lot of willpower to still be awake, but then again of course he had willpower like this… he was definitely a huntsman of some sort. He was trained very well and was likely the best one on one combatant his employer had at their disposal. [break][break]
”I know.” was the calm and cheery response as the wolf faunus bent over and picked up the odachi from the ground with her right hand and walked back over to the kneeling man. ”That’s why I didn’t ask you anything.” Alina would raise the tip of the blade with both of her hands in the “ox” position, with the blade up and to the outside. She then adjusted tip of the blade downward until it reached the uninjured shoulder of her opponent and thrust in mercilessly as deep as she could jam it with her arms. He screamed, then, once again. Once it was as deep as she was able to push it in, the wolf faunus released the blade from her grip and kicked the handle three times – twisting the blade deeper and deeper in and causing it to shift from side to side until the hilt of the blade was pressed against the man’s skin due to completely going through the bones of the shoulder. The resulting blood got on both of them, but that was fine. She then kicked the man in the chest, but not hard enough to break anything. Just enough to force him backwards so the tip of the odachi was holding him up and to cause the hand of his injured shoulder to be thrown to the ground… where she would stomp it mercilessly three times to completely crush the wrist and every bone in his hand to further incoherent screaming. For good measure, she kneeled down to use her hands to position the forearm to lie against the ground as well and stomped on that too until every bone in that particular forearm was smashed to bits just like the hand. [break][break]
”If you had won, you would have killed me. You were prepared to do it quickly, but given that I’m the injured party here I’m going to be a bit more vindictive.” she mentioned in the same almost friendly tone to contrast with her emotionless face as she continued stomping despite the cries of agony coming from her now helpless victim. Just because the man had tried to kill her moments earlier didn’t mean she had to be rude, after all. ”I’m not going to take your mask off, because I don’t really care who you are. The only people powerful enough to employ someone like you is the Council or the Artisan’s Guild, and I don’t care which you are because it doesn’t matter. They wanted to send a message, so I’m sending one back.” [break][break]
With that, she backed up a couple of steps and walked forward into a soccer kick on the knee of the leg with the shattered shin to smash that kneecap up as well to more screams as the guy obviously couldn’t move the leg with the shattered shin and all of his weight was forced to remain on that completely fucked up leg. ”I’m surprised you’re still conscious, you’re really good. I didn’t quite realize how deep I was in shit until now, so thanks for letting me know and giving me time to prepare for the next attack.” As she finished speaking, she took the opportunity to place her hands on the man’s smashed shoulder and neck in order to get the body in position for a vicious knee that forced the blade out of his other shoulder the hard way. ”And thanks for the sword. The weapon should be more than enough for an ID. You have one last chance to make a different choice in life, so I suggest you take it. Best of luck.” [break][break]
The man had fell over on his back in absolute agony with his shattered leg trapped underneath him the moment the sword was kneed out of his shoulder. Alina pulled the sword out of the ground and walked on her fallen enemy on the way out, making sure to step on the open would on his shoulder as she waltzed right out of the alleyway. They had cleared the area in anticipation of using more of the RPGs, most likely, and to make sure nobody came for the tons of water and steam grenades being used in the area. That cut both ways, though, and backup wasn’t able to arrive in time for this guy. It was his fault, really, for coming at her with only two guys – one seemingly without aura at all. Fucking insulting, really. They should have gotten at least one fire truck on each end of the alley and maybe some tanks if they were going to go all out, along with a dozen or so people on the rooftops with RPGs to soften her up before sending in the killer to finish the job. They underestimated her but wouldn’t the next time. She needed to start carrying around dust and at least backup weapons at all times from now on and have plans to make sure backup of her own was always much closer than it was today. It was a wakeup call, and not really a happy one. [break][break]
[break]27AV [break][break]
She was being followed. [break][break]
Alina didn’t quite know for how long, but she noticed it not long after leaving an affiliate gun store that she was doing frequent business with. Looking back was pretty standard every so often when moving around, especially in the Wind District, so she noticed the person out of place pretty quickly most likely… and this person was there every time she turned around, wearing a suit to blend in. He was a good distance behind her, but even from quick glances and waiting at crosswalks occasionally the wolf faunus knew for a fact that he was in communication with someone and had weapons in the left side of his suit jacket. The arm swing on his left side was shorter to guard whatever it was, and the left side of his jacket sagged from the weight once she was looking for it. Upon going up or down stairs, or going up or down from a crosswalk he would also reach a hand to the inside of his jacket on that side to make sure it was still there. How she knew he was talking with someone else was simple, because the guy had been on a phone call for the past hour while walking around. Judging by the fact that he was still following her, it was safe to assume that he didn’t know that she knew about it. [break][break]
Alina was still dressed in her work clothes, or more accurately her schmoozing in the Wind District clothes. It was a wool three-piece suit, dark gray with a mid-gray pinstripe with red lining running down the ensemble. The jacket was double breasted with a double back vent, two flap pockets, two inside chest pockets, ticket pocket on the right, peak lapels, and six buttons in the front with five on the cuff. The trousers had a squared front extension waistband, a flap watch pocket to the front, angled side front pockets and jetted back pockets to go with eight belt loops around the waist. The single-breasted waistcoat had paisley lining, a buckle back, two front jetted pockets, a double back vent, and a five-button front. [break][break]
She didn’t have any weapons on her, which was unfortunate but not a dealbreaker. She had a pair of her plant dust enhanced gloves in her inner pocket like she always did, which would be enough for whatever this was. It was towards the end of the day, and she deviated her usual route back to the Ground District to some alleys where they wouldn’t be disturbed, and to her surprise when she turned around once they were out of earshot of others the idiot was still like fifteen meters behind her. She reached out her left hand, and before the guy could really react she snapped her fingers and incinerated the left side of his suit jacket. She had expected it to be a gun, but to her surprise it exploded into a truly absurd amount of steam that soon covered the entire alleyway. The wolf faunus pulled the white, plant dust infused dress gloves out of her suit pocket and put them on just in time to see out of the corner of her eye a bunch of grenades fall onto the ground around her – from above somewhere… she couldn’t see due to all of the steam. Fucking hell, that must have been like ten grenades worth of steam – maybe more. Shit was dense so it would sit there in the air for a while, too, and she couldn’t spare the aura to burn it all out when she didn’t know what she was dealing with. [break][break]
She was fully expecting the attack to come from above at that point, given the volume of grenades… but they exploded not into shrapnel but instead in water. Holy fuck it was so much water. It shot out in every direction at high speeds and absolutely drenched Alina and disoriented her, enough to where she was legitimately caught off guard by the attack that followed. It was from directly behind her rather than from above, and only her reflexes and muscle memory prevented it from being a full-on hit to the spine rather than to the edge of her stomach. [break][break]
Whoever it was snuck up behind her and got a handful of hair before stabbing their sword right into her back, and her aura was reduced by almost a quarter by that initial strike alone. What they might not have banked on, though, was the fact that Alina’s hair was long enough for her to turn around while they grabbed the end of it and get hands on the enemy… hands that were shooting out fire at temperatures exceeding five thousand degrees Celsius to go along with the plant dust that emerged like napalm to coat the front of the attacker in flames. In a flash, though, the guy was just… gone. The steam dust was still overwhelming, and more and more water kept shooting out from probably more of the grenades. That would take the edge off of the napalm by hosing it off at high enough speeds to prevent the entire burn, but the fire had at least partially hit the guy and she knew for a fact she got a good bit of napalm on him at least initially. [break][break]
The second round of attacks was when Alina finally realized what his semblance was. He came up from behind her and she snapped her fingers to incinerate him, but then he disappeared and again only her reflexes prevented her from getting directly hit by the slash that followed behind her and the accompanying surge of lightning dust along the blade. She was able to get a kick out before he teleported again out of sight in the mass of steam, but it was only a glancing blow and his aura seemed to still be holding up really well all things considered. A bunch of lightning dust had gotten on her back from that which continued to shock her and cause pain, but she couldn’t exactly move or do anything about it at the present. An attack could come at any time, and she needed a plan. [break][break]
There was a delay, and a decently long one. Ten seconds or so with the lightning dust burning itself out on her back and ripping through her aura until there was only slightly above a third of it remaining. He was trying to be smart and wait to attack until after the lightning dust dissipated but made a mistake. It was efficient, sure, but it also gave Alina time to think of a counter. It gave her enough time to get into position for it, too, with her right foot back and pointed towards the side to make her harder to knock over and both arms away from her body with the thumbs and middle fingers of both hands pressed together. [break][break]
The next time the guy teleported in, Alina knew she had him. She caught on to what he was capable of doing, and dodged the incoming sword strikes completely as she snapped the fingers of both hands and blasted her semblance in all directions. Not very far in each direction, but the guy needed to be in melee range to actually slash at her even with teleportation and she bathed the area around her in flames roughly a meter deep in every direction as well as spreading the napalm from her gloves around everywhere for good measure. She caught him with the blast and dodged his attacks cleanly now that she knew how big his sword was and generally what his reach was, lighting up a good portion of his body in white flames and catching him with enough napalm to cover him from head to toe in the process. He activated the last two or three water grenades on himself as he staggered backwards as his red aura shattered into pieces, which threw off Alina’s kick to try and get the blade out of his hands right then and there. [break][break]
This was the first time she actually got a good look at him, now that the flames had dissipated the rest of the steam completely and the new steam arising from the burnt water from before was burned out of the air. The guy was taller than her by a lot, about a foot, and had a white grimm mask covering his face topped by black hair to go along with dark gray and red lamellar armor and an odachi held with both hands. The temperature shift was a bit disorienting, with the snow and residual ice on the ground melting due to it and so Alina didn’t even notice the attack behind her at first. Well, at least until the guy in front of her moved to avoid it. She saw his muscles switch as he moved to strafe, and she followed the strafe to her right just in time for a rocket propelled grenade to zip past her and explode at the end of the alleyway in a flashy enough manner that she knew damned well that this was a setup from someone high up the food chain – because if they were using RPGs like this it meant that there were no police in the area and they had done something to make sure the locals didn’t ask questions or rush over until the deed was done. What this did mean, however, was that the wolf faunus didn’t need to worry about being quiet or subtle at all. [break][break]
Alina turned her head slightly to incinerate the guy she should have killed earlier, turning him to ash in moments to prevent a second shot. The grimm mask guy charged while her head was turned, though, and managed a slash that definitely made some contact even with a pretty decent dodge and managed to get some lightning dust on her person. The wolf faunus backpedaled now that her back was clear and snapped her fingers to light the guy on fire, but he was quick enough to avoid the worst of it and his armor took most of the instant burns as it chipped away from the heavy damage caused by even momentary contact with flames of that magnitude. She landed a kick on his right forearm, but it was deflected partially by the remains of a piece of metal on the forearm that ended up being kicked off and absorbing much of the force behind the kick. Fuck, this guy was really good. Definitely a fixer for someone high up – and it was likely only the Council or the Artisan Guild could afford someone of this caliber. He came prepared to counter her napalm and had a semblance that made it impossible for her to fight at her preferred range, which forced her to fight in melee where she was just inferior compared to this guy who was not only packing a very strong dust enhanced weapon but was fast as well as durable and agile. He was definitely the strongest enemy she had faced since coming back to Mistral, and it wasn’t even close. [break][break]
With his aura broken, the guy was just bum rushing Alina over and over with that sword and risked everything on the assumption that she would crumble under continued pressure if he could just break her aura with one more blitz. Another solid hit that Alina was able to only partially dodge caused her white aura to break, but she was trained enough to be able to avoid the mental fog that came with that and slip away before the new round of lightning dust was discharged from the blade. The one from before still seared her suit jacket, however, and her kick while backing away crunched some metal into her enemy’s shin and caused it to visibly start bleeding as the metal punctured skin. [break][break]
She couldn’t use her dust gloves at this point due to not having any more fire to burn it with, so was definitely at a disadvantage. The guy charged again, and just when Alina thought she figured out his attack pattern he pulled out a vial of gravity dust from fucking somewhere and used it to reposition at the last moment to give a pretty solid slash that the wolf faunus was only able to avoid at the expense of her coat, which now had a giant cut through the right side along with a shallow gash along her ribcage. No lightning dust with this swing, though, which likely meant that he was out. Since he had a longer reach, the former soldier was only able to attack after he did and was able to get a roundhouse kick to his right elbow that smashed the remaining metal there and caused an audible crack as the metal rammed into his flesh and either broke the elbow or rammed the metal so far in there that it didn’t matter if it was broken or not judging by the blood coming out of that thing. The guy gasped in pain, of course, but was otherwise eerily silent… which was fine by her – she fucking hated blabbermouths wasting her time with their stupid philosophy when they were trying to kill her. [break][break]
At this point, Alina was starting to start breathing heavily but her combat ability wasn’t impaired just yet. The next attack was more telegraphed, with only one arm capable of holding the odachi and the other one much slower to grab the next vial of gravity dust. He used it to propel himself forward with a slash to Alina’s top left, and she stepped into the attack with her forearms meeting the blade partway as it cut through her clothes and skin in order to get close enough to land a savage kick to her opponent’s already injured shin that completely shattered the bone. For the first time, she heard his voice as he screamed in pain for the first time as his leg buckled beneath him and he fell forward. As he was falling the blade dug in slightly further in Alina’s forearms until she backed up and used the opportunity to give a good front kick with her reinforced boots right in the shoulder of his good arm to snap it out of place and cause him to scream a second time and lose his grip on his odachi, which clattered to the ground in an instant. [break][break]
Alina was bleeding at this point from both forearms and her right side, but nothing too bad. The cuts weren’t overly deep, and she managed to finish it before exhaustion really started setting in. Had the fight gone even a little bit longer, she might have been in big trouble as it went to full on attrition mode to the death. ”Not going to lie, I’m kind of insulted your employer thought you could kill me with just two people and some water.” she would say, almost conversationally as she kicked the odachi out of the fucker’s reach and started walking over to pick up the blade herself. [break][break]
”I’m not going to tell you anything.” the man coughed out, seemingly struggling to breathe through all the pain he was experiencing at the moment… what with the shattered shoulder and shattered shin and shattered elbow he must be barely staying conscious with her aura broken as well. Had a lot of willpower to still be awake, but then again of course he had willpower like this… he was definitely a huntsman of some sort. He was trained very well and was likely the best one on one combatant his employer had at their disposal. [break][break]
”I know.” was the calm and cheery response as the wolf faunus bent over and picked up the odachi from the ground with her right hand and walked back over to the kneeling man. ”That’s why I didn’t ask you anything.” Alina would raise the tip of the blade with both of her hands in the “ox” position, with the blade up and to the outside. She then adjusted tip of the blade downward until it reached the uninjured shoulder of her opponent and thrust in mercilessly as deep as she could jam it with her arms. He screamed, then, once again. Once it was as deep as she was able to push it in, the wolf faunus released the blade from her grip and kicked the handle three times – twisting the blade deeper and deeper in and causing it to shift from side to side until the hilt of the blade was pressed against the man’s skin due to completely going through the bones of the shoulder. The resulting blood got on both of them, but that was fine. She then kicked the man in the chest, but not hard enough to break anything. Just enough to force him backwards so the tip of the odachi was holding him up and to cause the hand of his injured shoulder to be thrown to the ground… where she would stomp it mercilessly three times to completely crush the wrist and every bone in his hand to further incoherent screaming. For good measure, she kneeled down to use her hands to position the forearm to lie against the ground as well and stomped on that too until every bone in that particular forearm was smashed to bits just like the hand. [break][break]
”If you had won, you would have killed me. You were prepared to do it quickly, but given that I’m the injured party here I’m going to be a bit more vindictive.” she mentioned in the same almost friendly tone to contrast with her emotionless face as she continued stomping despite the cries of agony coming from her now helpless victim. Just because the man had tried to kill her moments earlier didn’t mean she had to be rude, after all. ”I’m not going to take your mask off, because I don’t really care who you are. The only people powerful enough to employ someone like you is the Council or the Artisan’s Guild, and I don’t care which you are because it doesn’t matter. They wanted to send a message, so I’m sending one back.” [break][break]
With that, she backed up a couple of steps and walked forward into a soccer kick on the knee of the leg with the shattered shin to smash that kneecap up as well to more screams as the guy obviously couldn’t move the leg with the shattered shin and all of his weight was forced to remain on that completely fucked up leg. ”I’m surprised you’re still conscious, you’re really good. I didn’t quite realize how deep I was in shit until now, so thanks for letting me know and giving me time to prepare for the next attack.” As she finished speaking, she took the opportunity to place her hands on the man’s smashed shoulder and neck in order to get the body in position for a vicious knee that forced the blade out of his other shoulder the hard way. ”And thanks for the sword. The weapon should be more than enough for an ID. You have one last chance to make a different choice in life, so I suggest you take it. Best of luck.” [break][break]
The man had fell over on his back in absolute agony with his shattered leg trapped underneath him the moment the sword was kneed out of his shoulder. Alina pulled the sword out of the ground and walked on her fallen enemy on the way out, making sure to step on the open would on his shoulder as she waltzed right out of the alleyway. They had cleared the area in anticipation of using more of the RPGs, most likely, and to make sure nobody came for the tons of water and steam grenades being used in the area. That cut both ways, though, and backup wasn’t able to arrive in time for this guy. It was his fault, really, for coming at her with only two guys – one seemingly without aura at all. Fucking insulting, really. They should have gotten at least one fire truck on each end of the alley and maybe some tanks if they were going to go all out, along with a dozen or so people on the rooftops with RPGs to soften her up before sending in the killer to finish the job. They underestimated her but wouldn’t the next time. She needed to start carrying around dust and at least backup weapons at all times from now on and have plans to make sure backup of her own was always much closer than it was today. It was a wakeup call, and not really a happy one. [break][break]
Final aura/health values: [break][break]
Alina: 0% Aura, 45% health [break]
Assassin: 0% Aura, 0.1% health (Alina chose not to kill when given opportunity to lower to 0%)
[break]Alina: 0% Aura, 45% health [break]
Assassin: 0% Aura, 0.1% health (Alina chose not to kill when given opportunity to lower to 0%)
[attr="class","nikki103"]3461 words | [attr="class","nikki103"]ASCHE SYNDICATE | [attr="class","nikki103"]3461 TOTAL WORDS |
NOTES
A Semblance, D Weapons, B Dust Enhancement, C Durability, C Agility, C Martial Arts, D Stamina, D ExhaustionPHARAOH LEAP CREATES
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