[Nikolas Burzanov]

[nospaces]

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Qiu'li Caelum Ashworth

Approx 940 words
Semblance in Use: First Turn

heroes die with honor i'm no hero

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Nikolas had chosen his target well it seemed. Just as he had guessed from the momentary stare-down they had before the battle began, Caelum was similar to Nikolas in several ways. For one, instead of the plethora of other actions Caelum could've taken against Nikolas' attack, he had done one of the smartest things to do when confronted with a charging polearm; he got inside of the outer range. The blow still connected, albeit blocked by Caelum's weapon, the resounding clashing sound of metal on metal almost like a boom of thunder as the force of the blow connected, diluted by the angle of impact, which saved Caelum from being shoved along with the force. Instead, Stahlblesk kept its momentum, screeching down the length of Caelum's weapon as it continued its motion. [break][break]

The rare moment when Nikolas was wide open, within the transition from his first move to the next, he expected a counter given that Caelum was inside of his guard. But instead, Caelum it seemed decided to send a message rather than an attack. Nikolas saw it clearly, the barrel pointed right at his chest, Caelum's eyes sending the unspoken message. Nikolas' eyes simply focused with a kind of feral enjoyment, conceding the fact that he had gotten got, as much of an acknowledgement of the fact that Caelum would get. That moment passed and Caelum almost seemed to blur with the speed at which he dodged out of Nikolas' fade slash, Nikolas re-positioning and entering the defensive stance. [break][break]

He saw that in the moments he had re-positioned, Caelum had fired a volley at the VIP. Nikolas didn't even spare a glance at Colton, or Flower, and it was obvious he couldn't care less about the objective of the class or his teammates. He wasn't one to follow plans or teamwork. He was always the vanguard, the one who charged in and carved an opening in the fight. Just like he had done this time, and his team could either make use of it or be dead weight. He didn't spare a glance to even check, keeping his eyes on his opponents, seeing Qiu'li approaching as Caelum turned and fired off two shots at Nikolas. [break][break]

Those two shots were obviously more of a flushing shot than an attack, aimed at forcing Nikolas to move. Nikolas decided to go along with it, jerking his spear down into the ground, using it like a pivot and side stepping to his right. Stahlblesk's dug in tip acted like a fulcrum, allowing Nikolas to move with a center of rotation that was unexpected, one projectile missing while another skimmed Nikolas' shoulder. Nikolas didn't even bother to actively defend that hit, so his aura didn't take that hit, the bullet instead barely hitting his shoulder, cutting through the fabric of his shirt and causing a line of blood to appear on his skin, minuscule droplets flying out. He finished his movement, still staying loosely in his stance, returning it tightly as soon as the bullets passed him by simply raising the point of his spear again. [break][break]

And it kept rising, up and up, to meet Qiu'li's attack as Qiu'li came at Nikolas. Given that Nikolas had pivoted somewhat, he had a new angle towards Qiu'li's approach, now both of them set to meet head on rather than Qiu'li coming in from Nik's right. Nikolas drew his spear back, closer to him as he raised the blade, aiming to meet Qiu'li's strike. As Qiu'li lashed out with his weapon, Nik did a small thrust and jerk of his weapon, a precise movement that was possible with Nikolas' above-average dexterity with his weapon, catching one of the chains inbetween two of the sticks on Qiu'li's weapon, furthest from where his hand held his weapon. The chain went right into the gap on Stahlblesk's separated blade, into the gap that was open to allow Stahlblesk's ranged option to fire, hitting the tip of the barrel in the middle of the blade's length. Another jerk, and Stahlblesk twisted, locking the chain into the blade's hold so it wouldn't just slide out again, the stick on the other end smacking into the pole of Stahlblesk, as well as Nik's left hand as it gripped the blade, his aura absorbing the clashing blow. [break][break]

With how Qiu'li's weapon was caught by Nikolas' weapon, they were now locked in close quarters, both unable to use their weapon without enabling the other to do so as well. A momentary impasse as Nik stared right at Qiu'li's face. Nikolas' eyes widened infinitesimally as a white glow suddenly lit up behind his gaze, making his normally grey irises look almost like a glowing pool of liquid silver. That was the only warning anyone got, aside from the sudden drop in air pressure, a silence that came on with such speed that it was loud, only lasting for a heartbeat. [break][break]

And then, the air around Nikolas seemed to explode into motion, turning into a churning tempest as Nikolas' semblance activated, Stormheart. Snow and dust began to swirl and circle around Nikolas like a miniature hurricane, obscuring sight of him slightly while the sound within the maelstrom roared to an almost deafening level, still being loud to everyone else outside of it albeit manageable. As soon as the storm started around him, Nikolas twisted his weapon back, relinquishing his hold on Qiu'li's weapon while twisting his own body, aiming a low kick at Qiu'li's knee which wouldn't sweep the oriental warrior off his feet, or even hurt him that much, but definitely unbalance him or stagger him, combining that with the disorienting effect of the storm. The distance between them meant that Qiu'li would already be in the thick of the storm, and while it wouldn't damage him, he would quickly find that he was unable to hear his teammates or himself speaking within the storm, the unrelenting battering of snow-flecked wind sapping his strength and hampering his movements. For anyone not caught in the storm who had not seen Nikolas' semblance before, it was truly a sight to behold. [break][break]

ulla

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[Flower Fiorella]

❝What do your eyes see?❞

[attr="class","flowerb"]

She gripped Bloom tight in her hands. It was time to transform. Metal took to her limbs as she realized that despite Nikolas going after Caelum in full force, the gunslinger was also firing at Colton. Her arm turned into a round shield, as she held it up high. Flower kept at Colton’s side, attempting to take a few bullets rather than letting most of them hit the VIP. Regardless, it seemed that Colton’s concentration had been broken for his shield toss and the use of his Polarity. The brunette might have called it annoying, Flower could probably think of other words to use to describe it, but she remained silent about the matter instead.

They had other matters to deal with. Agnes was running at her, for some reason or another specifically targeted her. Perhaps the blue haired faunus figured it was better to take out the protection before the VIP, but Flower didn’t have time to speculate. Agnes would hit literal solid steel when Flower activated her semblance with a light glowing lavender aura. Metallic eyes didn’t blink as the two exchanged contact, Flower barely grunted, her aura still green after the transformation and the hit. Agnes hit fast, that was something to take note of, she had a sword. Swordsmanship.

”Flower, box her in.”

Flower listened. Colton was close by her, she had kept them close together on purpose. Her grip changed on Bloom as she sidestepped to the left of the girl, Colton’s scabbard would come flying from the right. Agnes would have little options of where to go other than directly into Flower herself. Flower’s Bloom would have transformed into its full-sword state as the scabbard came flying lowly, aimed for the Faunus’s legs. Flower gripped at Bloom with a single hand, the blade 3 feet long in its sword state. Flower swung methodically, diagonally, but holding up her own shield to cover her side as she attacked. Regardless of whether her attacks or Colton’s scabbard would land their hits, she realized that Colton was down both his shield and scabbard. She stomped her foot down, sliding to kick his scabbard back at his direction and hopefully that would allow him to catch the sheath on his own will or semblance.

But their true mission wasn’t really to win a physical battle, no, they needed to get keep moving.

And for whatever Agnes would do afterwards as well, Flower was prepared to forget continuing the contact and only react defensively. If Colton was moving, then she was moving too. She turned to Colton, nodding only once with her cold metallic stare. He was going for his shield. If Agnes was still close enough to her, Flower would switch to holding her shield in front of her again and then jump forward to bash the Faunus directly and potentially push her away or knock her off her feet. Regardless, Flower would dash out of the way, assuming that Colton would fire wildly at Agnes with his shotgun. Flower was well aware that the Argus native’s marksmanship was less to be desired. If she needed to, she would use her own shield to block stray pellets as well. If Agnes had been knocked down, then just maybe the Faunus would have been an easy enough target for Colton going literally buck wild.

Returning to Colton’s side, Flower was urging him to continue their movement. Nikolas was engaging both Caelum and Qiu’li, but such a distraction wouldn’t last for long, especially as the two of them had been ganging up on Agnes. Her own shield had a few dents in it, but she was mostly fine, thanks to transformation. But another aspect of her transformation was that it would only last so long and if they had any chance of charing through while they had that advantage of her own semblance, they needed to keep moving now.

---

Weapon: F Rank, Bloom
Semblance: D - Rank Transformation, Material Mimicry - 1/4
Stamina, Durability, Moldability - Shield
Abilities: F Rank Speed, F Rank Marksmanship

WORDS 649

TOTAL WORDS 2168

Colton Deraine Qiu'li Nikolas Burzanov Agnès Oktyabrskaya Caelum Ashworth

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[Caelum Ashworth]

Caelum knew he was facing with a beast, if Nikolas’s reactions were any indication of that. Other than a frown, he gave no further reaction that would tell of his feelings on the matter of the other white haired lad’s nature, and instead got ready for the continuation of the fight, not even checking what the result of his attack on the VIP was. He just hoped it helped out his teammates back there somewhat, and that the two others would be able to push Colton back and lessen his chances at winning.

Nikolas avoided his shots by a breath, but that did not discourage Caelum in the slightest. Those were only aimless shots anyway. He was ready to react with a counter as Nikolas rushed him, but the attack never came as Qiu’li has entered the battleground beside him. Caelum was surprised Qiu’li came to clash with Nik instead of attacking the VIP of the assignment, but he supposed, in a certain way, the young man was following the plan Agnés came up with. It was certainly commendable, but this way, their other teammate was in trouble... Caelum did not try to check the other side of the battle field, but the VIP’s current status was nagging at the back of his mind, urging him to change tactics.

Qiu’li had locked weapons with the opponent as Caelum took aim with Luna again, but the target was too unclear even from the mid-range distance he currently stood at. He was not about to risk shooting his own teammate, and by the time he was about to rush in for another attack, Qiu’li’s warning rang out, and Nikolas’s eyes started to glow.

Sound and wind exploded out, and it was only thanks to Caelum’s natural instinct in using his semblance to flee that he avoided being caught up in that storm. His own eyes glowed white as particles appeared around his body, gathering under his feet to form a circle under him. He jumped fast and high into the air where he jumped again to stop above the battleground and get a bird-eye view of the situation.

Qiu’li and Nikolas were enveloped by the wind, while Colton and Flower were surrounding Agnés. It appeared that Flower already had her semblance active, and if he could believe Qiu’li’s words – which, he had no reason not to believe – she was formidably strong while it was active. On the other side, Colton as well, possessed a semblance that could prove to be rather difficult to deal with, especially with Agnés’s and his own weapons of choice. Looking back at the others, that windy sphere did not seem to dish out any damage, if he was seeing it right from this distance, but he was not about to test it on his own body. He frowned, and felt that abandoning Qiu’li in that storm was not the right decision, but. Colton was their current target. And Agnés was alone. Weighing his options for the short moment he seemed to halt in the air as his ascend stopped but gravity did not decide to pull him down just yet, Caelum made his decision.

The VIP seemed to be ready to retaliate against any attacks coming from Agnés, as his stance was focused on the attacker, defensive stance ready to dispatch the counter any moment. However, Caelum could see a possible flaw in that defense that he could take advantage of.

It did not defend Colton from above.

White particles glowed around him as a white circle appeared behind his knees, slightly tipped forward. Caelum bent his legs, feet tapping on the emblem as footing, and then, with both aspects of his semblance activated, leaped straight down towards Colton. He was positioned just slightly behind the other student, and as he seemed mostly focused on the opponent in front, Caelum had a chance to bring in a sneak attack from an angle he did not expect it. Solis in his left arm was ready to strike, and as he reached the boy with his enhanced speed, he was ready to slice at the protective jacket at Colton’s back, to cut a line from right shoulder to his left hip.

Caelum was focused on the attack, and even if Flower noticed him, he cared little for incoming barrage of bullets while the attack was in motion. She was too preoccupied with Agnés anyway. After that, however, no matter if the attack connected or not, he was moving yet again, to avoid both a retaliation from Colton in case he turned, or a reaction from Flower who intended to protect the VIP. Caelum’s feet never touched the ground as another emblem appeared under him as soon as the movement of his slice ended, and he jumped up above to dance around Colton’s head again – this time, to get in his line, and use a well-aimed kick to the boy’s shoulder, arms held high up after the jump, intended to push him back toward the starting point and away from the line he had to cross to win. Caelum predicted that the element of surprise would be enough to at least connect one of his intended attacks, especially if his timing was right and Agnés attacked right as he himself did. With the distraction from the front, and the unpredictability of a foe above, even if there were two watchful eyes around, Caelum had a confidence in his movements. Still, paying attention to Flower was harder, but he was willing to take bullets if it meant the VIP was not getting away unscathed either. He remembered what Qiu’li said about Colton’s semblance, how he was able to control metal by touch, but he had to risk this maneuver, or they will reach a stalemate and nothing else.

He had a lot of nice lines prepared, sarcastic little jabs and words that stressed the irony of the situation, but he never had the opportunity to say any of those. Talking while in the air would give away his position, and talking while standing on the ground would just needlessly distract his teammate. Instead he landed without a word a bit away from Agnés, Solis as a blade in his left hand, and Luna as a gun in his right.

☽ ☾

words: 1048
Theloria Shadecloak Colton Deraine Nikolas Burzanov Flower Fiorella Qiu'li Agnès Oktyabrskaya
Caelum is the person that jumps all around the battlefield, but what did we expect?

☽ ☾

heaven's tracker - speed + flight - rank e
luna & solis weapon - rank f
windstep style martial arts - rank f
stamina - rank f

|| template designed by NEMO of adoxography ||

[Qiu'li]

[attr="class","popqiu"] ❝May the crimson leaves show me the path I must follow.❞ wc: 876 | twc: 2938 Qiu'li

[attr="class","qiutext"] The benefit of fighting an opponent that one had encountered before was that Qiu'li knew what to expect, and how to handle him as a result. Hopefully his warning to Caelum reached him before he got caught in the storm, and from there he'd get an idea of Nikolas' Semblance and range. From here, he couldn't help Caelum even if he wanted to since he was in a deadlock with Nikolas, though at the very least he could manage the white haired one and keep his ability from affecting the others. They were similar in nature. They were fighters, though one fought out of vengeance and the other fought to survive. Eyes locked against Nikolas, his liquid silver eyes shone brightly against his dark brown eyes as the pressure around them dropped. Having lived in the mountainous regions and fighting Nikolas in the past meant that these were tell-tale signs of him activating his Semblance, and Qiu'li was ready for the most part. As they clashed and Nikolas maneuvered to lock them in place by catching the chains in between his staff and locking them in, Qiu'li took this time to readjust his footing and his hand placement on the staff. Before, Qiu'li had his hand on one end of the staff, but now that he caught the chain on one third of it, Qiu'li took this opportunity and shifted stances so that he had one hand on each end of of the staff, the middle taught by the tension of Nikolas' swordspear being entangled in the chains to prevent the two from trying to attack the other. As soon as his Semblance began, Qiu'li reacted at the same time the white haired lad did. Nikolas tried to pull away, presumably to leave Qiu'li in the middle of the storm and take advantage of the disorienting nature of his Semblance to knock Qiu'li into a disadvantageous position. Instead of allowing him to release the chains and leaving him in the middle of the storm, Qiu'li leapt towards Nikolas, spiraling a bit with his acrobatic finesse to not only mitigate the circular motion of the sudden storm but to avoid the low kick that would have surely knocked Qiu'li off his feet. During their first encounter with him and Ros, the raven haired man was swept up in the storm and knocked around relentlessly, giving Nikolas the pleasure of doing as he pleased for a good while as he stumbled about trying to get his footing and figuring out how to fight such a disorienting Semblance. It was a bitter defeat on his part at the time, but he acknowledged Nikolas on the basis that he was a good fighter and wasn't Colton. So there was that. However, this time he was prepared to even the odds between them. Since he pulled himself in with Nikolas when he tried to retract, Qiu'li momentarily found himself in Nikolas' really small bubble that wasn't affected by his Semblance's own wild winds. While his body was still largely outside of the safezone, his head was for the most part inside at the moment, which gave him a minor advantage at best when it came to his next move. Raising one stick above him head, Qiu'li tensed his body and began to fall. As he came down on Nikolas, who would still be in the middle of performing his low sweep, Qiu'li's skin began to emit clouds of steam and darkened several shades of purple. His veins along his arms and temple popped out as he plummeted straight down, stick in each hand, straight down on top of Nikolas. The first hit would be a downward swing with his increased strength towards his head, the second would follow up and deliver a second, heavy blow on the side, aimed around where his rib was. Although he wouldn't anticipate that Nikolas could easily get up and somehow block the first strike, the second one should land on his side unless he decided to try and roll out of the way. They were in incredibly close quarters, which was good news for Qiu'li since Nikolas was not only unable to shoot him due to the fact that his gun barrel was at the end of his swordspear, but gave Qiu'li the chance to to wail on him using the two sticks as batons to wail on him and the used the middle stick to both keep the spear pointed away from him and prevent Nikolas from straightening himself out.   The downside to this incredibly close-quarters strategy was that Qiu'li was still technically within the storm and couldn't aim very well due to some of his vision being blocked. At the same time, Nikolas theoretically shouldn't be able to tell from which direction that his batons would come down from, and there were two of them. Although it didn't really matter when someone was almost mounting you with two metal sticks, there was still a level of uncertainty in this situation. Not to mention staying in the midst of the storm meant that his stamina would be worn down fairly quickly, therefore this encounter would have to end quickly before exhaustion started to take over and slow down his movements to a predictable manner.

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Fènnù (+Strength +Agility +Projectile Sword Beam) | Rank E ACTIVE 1/3
Lóngtóu and Panlong | Rank F
Falling Ashes (Leap) | Rank F
Weapon Proficiency I (Martial Arts) | Rank F
Resilience of the Crimson Oaks I (Durability) | Rank F
Dance of the Wild Winds II (Acrobatics) | Rank E

[Agnès Oktyabrskaya]

The scabbard came. She knew that much; the question was in how to avoid it with the girl in front of her activating her semblance right off the bat. Thankfully she had kicked flat-footed, but it would have really hurt had she kicked with her toes. Agnes had no idea that her semblance could be activated that fast, so that was news to her. She also had no idea how long it could last, but what she did know was that every moment that Flower kept her semblance up was a moment that she could totally ignore her in terms of offense. It wouldn't do much to punch or kick steel, and the new weight of her body would probably slow her down, even if only a tiny bit. But that only mattered much if Colton wasn't in the picture; she still had two people to deal with due to both of her partners ditching her to fight Nikolai. Her left hand found its way to her sword, and she ducked and weaved and stepped frantically to avoid Flower's attacks. Colton's scabbard came by, and though she heard it initially drag on the ground before it came towards her, she was a little too preoccupied to dodge it completely;  she tried to step backwards away from it, but  it caught her ankle as she stepped, and while it didn't wrap around her or anything tricky like that, a hit was a hit and would damage her aura. The attack from Flower's shield, however, was just slow enough to allow her to react, and she stepped around it to the left, just narrowly avoiding being knocked over by it. But now Flower was in front of her, and Colton was next to her.

She had to make a decision: it was obviously Colton's plan to, in his his own words, 'box her in'. That would be bad. She didn't have the raw power to cut through steel, and even if it didn't matter and she only needed to beat up on Flower's aura, she didn't want to waste time boxing with somebody she didn't have to. But if she didn't, then she'd be forced to play defense against two people. A textbook case of a disadvantageous position. Her sword's scabbard glowed a dull, faint white color.

Or at least she thought so, when she caught sight of Caelum dropping in from the sky onto Colton's head. That would be enough to distract the both of them in the moment. She remained focused half on Colton and half on Flower in order to not give him away, and it was then that her decision was made: she would go all-in on Flower. After all, if Caelum needed help, he would remember the codeword, right? With her mind made up, her full attention shifted to Flower. As soon as Caelum's attack landed - hit or miss - without a word, she would dash forwards with a burst of speed, one hand still on her sword's hilt. After all, she didn't need to kill Flower. She just needed to drain her aura to a dangerously low level, enough to activate the safety measures on the suit. Or at least out-last her. When Flower was in range, she again went for the other girl's legs, lowering herself and swinging her foot, flat once more, forwards towards Flower's ankle. Except this time, in the same instant, her sword came out of its sheath. It came out like lightning; in one instant it was still in its scabbard, and in the next a draw and cut had already been completed. It was a horizontal strike, aimed at preventing Flower from stepping to either side to avoid being kicked in the ankle. In the same fluid motion, as if it had been practiced before, Agnes retreated backwards from her position, standing at regular height once more, and at a normal speed her sword was back in its protective holster. There was no keeping her semblance a secret any longer, but hopefully it had scored her at least a few points of damage.

WC 682 TWC 2059

Caelum Ashworth@flower@wings@colton@nova

[Colton Deraine]

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[attr="class","firstfriend"]

Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.

When Agnes moved backwards, Colton had done exactly as he had prepared and instantly transformed his weapon into its shotgun form to fire off three bursts of buckshot in quick succession at her. He wasn’t interested in chasing her around, and the range was close enough to where he could just keep moving towards his shield without actually getting much farther away. Even with his poor marksmanship, at this distance is was difficult to miss all the pellets. Flower had kicked his sheath towards him, either due to the fact she was clever or because she didn’t quite remember her classmate’s limits didn’t exactly matter in the moment because it made it appear like he didn’t still have the ability to throw it out for throw number two.

Unfortunately for Colton, however, he didn’t see the attack coming from behind at all. He had simply assumed that their worthless third teammate would be wiped from the field and the fight reoriented into a two versus two afterwards and had not considered the fact that an enemy might come early. The problem with flight was the lack of noise it provided compared to normal running, and thus there was much less time to react to the point of it being nearly impossible. Movement based semblances were a fucking pain to deal with and were doubly so when it wasn’t expected. The problem with those types, though, was that normally they weren’t so good at taking hits. Instead of attempting to dodge halfway through being slashed, the Argus native instead crouched and leaned into the blow so that he traded a direct hit on himself for the immediate opportunity to retaliate and transform his weapon back to a sword from its previous shotgun state. ”Flower, take care of the girl.” would be his only order as he sprung into action on his end as well. He had perhaps too much faith in their third member at the beginning of the exercise, assuming that the arrogance to rush out against three at the very start was borne out of some sort of skill to back it up at least… but if Qiu’li was enough to keep that idiot in check Colton had zero doubt that the hermit from the Vale would end up winning that encounter and meandering over any second once he had dispatched Nikolas. That meant that they had limited time to take care of the two in front of them, so they needed to go on the offensive.

His sheath would shoot towards Agnes once more towards her head to occupy her attention or get a nasty and disorienting blow in to open up an opening for Flower to capitalize and he had to trust that between that distraction and Flower he would be free at least for the few seconds he needed to pull off something to take this new guy out of the fight. While he couldn’t strictly see his opponent, he could sure as hell feel where the blade was and had a very good idea of where Caelum was when he reversed the grip on his sabre while simultaneously activating the dust enhancement to cause the cutting edge and tip of the blade to be lined with bright red as the fire dust mechanism activated. Anyone struck with the true edge of the blade or the tip would suffer vastly increased damage from each strike as the extreme heat coupled with the sharp blade in order to burn through aura like a hot knife through butter. The physical lean backwards got him closer as the former champion attempted a blind stab at the opponent behind him and continued to track Caelum’s movements, finally getting a visual of his opponent as his opponent soared upwards once more.

One thing that his classmate would notice immediately was the fact that Colton was much more durable than the average student at Haven. Almost anyone else would have been reduced to low yellow or high red aura levels according to the safety suit they were all wearing, but after the completely clean and uncontested attack that the Caelum guy just landed on the Argus native… Colton’s aura levels still showed green. Whether the thrust backwards connected or not, he would point the tip of his blade upwards along the back of his arm as soon as he caught visual of his opponent and again leaned into the impact of the kick in order to get a decent angle to fire off his blade tip-first towards the torso of his opponent as he again leaned into the kick that would finally bring Colton’s aura levels into the yellow range. While he was certainly very durable with above average aura control, that durability had its limits and at this point Caelum had landed multiple solid hits with the fact that his weapon was not up to snuff being the only saving grace in this encounter so far.

Whether that sword toss hit or not, the weapon would fly backwards after moving forward only a meter or two into the waiting right hand of its owner at approximately the same time as Caelum hit the ground. Colton’s left hand would be behind his back at this point, as was not uncommon in sabre fencing and the backsword held immediately in the Outside Guard position. This stance had the former champion’s knuckles turned to the outside with his finger nails downwards about six to eight inches to the right of the center of his body in order to protect the outside of his position. The tip of his backsword was pointed at the right eye of his opponent in a much more offensive posturing than the one he was in before. If Caelum immediately attacked by attacking Colton’s inside position with the tip of his blade, the Argus native would throw up his wrist as quickly as possible to beat the blade back before the attack came inside of his guard and would thrust downwards in perhaps the most practiced type of counter in the entirety of the Argus system: the redirection or binding of an enemy blade up high and an immediate and uncontested thrust downwards while the enemy blade still caught along the opposite edge on the outside.

If he attacked the outside position it was a much simpler matter to simply beat back the blade with his own because that was the type of defense that this posture excelled in. By enhancing the strength of the redirection by activating Polarity on the right metal vambrace, it would create an opening to do the exact same combination attack that he would attempt if Caelum instead allowed Colton to take initiative to attack first. He would feint a thrust to the throat of his opponent to distract him and keep his eyes up while he worked Polarity to work loose his left vambrace on the arm behind his back to snake around his body and shoot towards whichever ankle was held most backwards. The open vambrace would then aim to catch the ankle and foot and dig itself as far into the ground as possible at the moment where the thrust would be redirected into a moulinet which was simply moving the sword in a quick arc that essentially was a small circle to redirect the strike freely and generate enough momentum for a full force strike that would quickly redirect the blow from a thrust to the throat into a hard cut to the left side of the head that would then ideally force a backstep that would cause his opponent to lose his balance and ideally lose his composure for a moment due being caught by the vambrace.

If the aura of his opponent was not depleted at that point, he would continue to press his advantage with powerful slashing strikes that took advantage of the lack of mobility while it lasted as well as the fact that Polarity allowed Colton to make completely unnatural and thus unpredictable attacks from simply redirecting force to angles that should have not been possible. Forcing a defense up high and on the left side, for example, before doing a Polarity enhanced moulinet to instead strike downwards towards the legs with no telegraphing and no delay. The showmanship and banter were gone throughout the entire exchange no matter what the end result was, though, and replaced with grim and silent determination. There was no holding back and no apologies for being rough this go around, because for the first time there was an actual perceived threat of losing. The dust enhancement was always there but couldn’t be predicted, and the metal vambraces and greaves that the teenager always wore were always kept hidden and never really acknowledged. He was forced to dig into his bag of tricks for the first time in this scenario, so he at least had the element of surprise on his side for now unless his previous fights in the tournament were actually studied.

※ 5596 total words ✎ 1503 words ✉ E rank semblance, E ranked martial arts, E ranked durability, E rank weapon enhancement, E ranked weapon, F rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Nikolas Burzanov]

[nospaces]

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Qiu'li

Approx 830 words - Semblance in Use: Second Turn

heroes die with honor i'm no hero

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As soon as Stormheart came into effect, Qiu'li proved himself to be a very smart opponent by trying to counter it by staying inside of Nikolas' guard. Still, Nikolas' eyes would widen momentarily in surprise as his head whipped up to follow Qiu'li's progress. The chains rattled along Stahlblesk's inner blade as Qiu'li moved, coming down on Nikolas, Nikolas' eyes narrowing once Qiu'li's skin turned purple. A sure sign that Qiu'li had used his semblance. Just as Qiu'li remembered Nikolas' semblance from back when they fought, Nikolas remembered Qiu'li's semblance, how it turned his skin purple and allowed him to deliver some very punishing blows, some that Nikolas had first hand experience of.[break][break]

As Qiu'li descended with his two strikes from two directions, Nikolas's mind fired off thoughts at lightspeed, his battle instincts on complete overdrive as he thought of a reaction. He twisted and turned his body, leaning towards the other side so Qiu'li's downward strike, the more dangerous of the two blows, would miss Nikolas, barely skimming his back as it swung down. One of his hands loosened its grip on one of the handholds of Stahlblesk, the one closer to the blade, while his other hand reached for the trigger that was right above the lower handhold. This was a tactic he rarely used given the chance of stray fire, but now that his barrel was aimed pretty much upwards, there was no risk of that.[break][break]

He pulled the trigger, and Stahlblesk fired, a deafening crack resounding like a thunderclap as a projectile exploded out of the barrel, almost instantaneously hitting the chain caught in its path, the bullet ricocheting off the chain, off the blade and out into the sky. However, he wasn't aiming for anything. The recoil of the powerful report jerked Stahlblesk back, his singular hand gripping it being a perfect fulcrum to allow the cross-spear to turn with an unexpected angle. The front of the spear dropped, taking the other side of Qiu'li's chain-staff down with it, while Nikolas' other hand gripped the spear once more, guiding the turn to completion to bring the lower half of Stahlblesk up, the pole pressed up against his forearm of the hand which held the lower hold.[break][break]

The sound of Qiu'li's strengthened blow slamming into Stahlblesk was almost as loud as the gunshot that had echoed moments prior. Because of how Nikolas had turned his weapon, and the way their weapons were entwined, the motion had pulled Qiu'li's strike off slightly, giving him some angle to work with. Even then, he felt a lot of the impact slamming into the pole, and into his forearm, as his aura shuddered from the blow, his jacket flickering for a moment, barely managing to hold onto green. The impact was powerful enough that it actually sent deflected Stahlblesk away, and if Qiu'li had another weapon right now, Nikolas would've been completely open for it. But, given that their weapons were entangled, Stahlblesk's lowered blade would pull on Qiu'li's staff hard.[break][break]

Nikolas took the opportunity. His left arm was currently flying off to the side, holding onto Stahlblesk. His right arm, however, he brought up, sliding the pole off of his forearm where he had braced it, snapping the limb upwards at Qiu'li's face in a vicious backhand. He would've punched the man, but the positioning of his arms had been awkward. Even then, since Qiu'li was currently descending, as well as being dragged by his staff, the backhand would do a good hit, if not ideal.[break][break]

Whether or not it connected, Nikolas' blade collided against the ground,the impact jarring the chains loose for a moment as well as halting his momentum. Nikolas took full initiative, twisting his body the other way as well as leaning, his left hand sliding up the middle of Stahlblesk, catching the bolt on the way up. A satisfying 'CHK' sound as the bolt was drawn back, a large spent cartridge ejected from the chamber as another one slotted in, the bolt resetting itself. His left hand came to rest on the lower handhold, as it pulled the trigger once more.[break][break]

By the time Nikolas' backhand had just about hit or missed Qiu'li, the second shot would ring out, almost unheard through the roaring winds of Stormheart, this one exploding into the ground, the recoil blowing Stahlblesk up and around, his hand once again a pivot. The motion freed both weapons from each other, the chains sliding out down the gap, as Stahlblesk's blade went back lengthwise, before turning upwards. At this range, it the blade wouldn't make contact with Qiu'li, but the crossguard of the spear swung up, the back of it aimed for a brutal hit to Qiu'li's right side, the force of which would most likely blow Qiu'li a few feet away given that the man was still in the middle of falling if it connected enough to transfer the force. And that, would land the man right in the midst of Stormheart. [break][break]

ulla

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[Caelum Ashworth]

Caelum had not known anything about Colton. He never saw him fight, did not study his tournament matches to get an idea about his style, nor did he get much more information on him than what he heard from Qiu’li moments ago. And so, he did not know what to expect aside from the things he could gather from fighting stances and body language. Caelum was good at reading body language. A certain kind of anticipation of the opponent’s movement was needed for the fighting style he was taught, but that never meant he could get away injury-free from a battle.

He was already flying upwards when Colton stabbed back in order to retaliate against the unseen foe that injured him. The fact he automatically attacked instead of flinching at the injury already proved he was sturdier than most of the students, which would pose as a problem for him. The first stab missed him only barely, but when he went for the kick, he was not so lucky. He could not celebrate in seeing Colton’s aura meter hit the yellows, as while he was falling back from the buoyancy, a flaming sword was coming his way. The attack was well hidden and came as a surprise. Colton’s sword was hidden along his arm, and while Caelum expected an attack, it was not in the form he thought it would be. The sword pierced at his left side clean, and instantly forced his Aura into yellow as well.

Caelum winced as he landed, but studied Colton’s stance while he picked his own. His classmate was much offense oriented now than a moment before, and that was already a warning for Caelum to up his game as well. He moved his left arm in front of himself, lower arm horizontal in front of his neck, as he changed his grip on Solis to a backward one. Effectively, his blade now aligned with his lower arm, the whole of the edge facing Colton. His other weapon, Luna, was raised up, his right arm placed on top of the horizontal left one, aiming the barrel of his gun straight at Colton’s body. It was clear what Caelum wanted. At this distance, he needed no marksmanship to hit a target with the remaining pellets he had.

His fighting style was strongly defensive on close quarters, and with Colton’s weapon of choice, Caelum found it better to wait for the other to initiate an attack instead of rushing in head first. As much as he knew of his semblance, it was best to observe his actions. Colton’s fighting stance was that of a fencer’s, so he expected stabs instead of full-on slashes. He found it natural he would hold his left arm behind him, as without a shield to hold up, it held no other purpose right about now. That was what he thought at least, and oh, will he be proven wrong.

So if Colton expected an attack, he would be disappointed. But Caelum did not need to wait for long either, as a rush came, and with that, retaliation as well. He waited for the last moment, when Colton was close enough with his attack at his throat, before emptying the remainder of his magazine aiming his shots at the VIP’s chest. In his forward rush, these pellets probably had a high chance to hit Colton, but at the same time, Caelum himself was distracted enough by focusing on the attack to miss the vambrace. Caelum was ready to push the attacking sword up with the horizontally held Solis, but just as the opponent changed the attack’s route in the smallest, he could feel something snake around his right ankle.

Having movement based semblance, Caelum quickly learned that his most important point in a fight was never to get stranded, and keep on moving as much as possible. So with the attack coming from the front, his eyes shone bright and his body gained speed into an effective backstep, Solis raising up in defense against a possible slash while his arm that held Luna aimed out to his side, and lowered. Flicking his wrist, he would change Luna back to sword form just as he could feel his right foot being halted. Colton’s vambrace did stop him through his semblance’s activation, although due to the timing and Caelum’s readiness to use his own semblance any time, it could not trap his ankle. However, it still stopped his motion for the time being, which was just enough for Colton’s upward slash to reach his face, and his Aura as well.

His Aura lowered further through the yellows, and he knew he would not be able to take much more of that flaming sword’s attacks at this rate without being pushed from the game. A white, circular emblem of the sun and the moon shone behind him as it balanced him, steadied him from falling back and gaining further advantage. Caelum regained his balance, angling his left leg back, and the white emblem shattered into nothing around him. He could not run away to gain his distance with the vambrace holding his feet just enough to distract him, so he dig his left heel into the ground, and attacked.

Colton’s upward slash and Caelum’s semblance helping his balance would at least give him enough space to counter. Solis still held in a backward grip, he would attempt a slash from Colton’s right shoulder angled down toward his left side. As Colton held his own sword in his right hand, Caelum would not be surprised if this attack was parried and redirected in some way. However, just like Colton, Caelum was also not a person that used a single weapon. Luna, by now, had also transformed back into a sword, and no matter if his previous slash connected, he would also aim Luna’s blade in a normal offensive grip to slash across Colton’s abdomen horizontally, watching carefully where to strike in case Colton’s sword was there to parry his first blade attack. As Caelum’s right arm was held down and angled outward while he transformed Luna to partially hide it with his body, there was a chance Coltom himself was too distracted to see it happening, and would less likely expect a slash from something that was a handgun moments before. Next, with both arms, both blades in front of him, his defense would raise considerably if Colton attempted another slash or thrust with his single sword forward. Caelum would use this highly defensive stance to lower himself into a jumping-ready pose, his semblance shone with full visibility as white particles gathered into an emblem under his left, free foot, and he jumped.

His aim was to lose his shoe, pretty simply speaking, and he hoped the sudden gain of speed would be enough for his left leg to slip out of his shoe and out of the vambrace that, due to his trigger happy semblance, only managed to trap his foot, and not his ankle. With him free again, he would use one more emblem to gain a distance from Colton, but only for the short time until he found the perfect opportunity for a counter.

If his calculations were right, Caelum only had one more direct hit from that sword of Colton’s, before he hit the red, and he would be out of the game. Now, a more pressing matter was, how much aura did Colton have, before he dropped? He just needed to find out. If worse comes to worst, he would just need to take Colton down with himself.

☽ ☾

words: 1267
Theloria Shadecloak Colton Deraine Nikolas Burzanov Flower Fiorella Qiu'li Agnès Oktyabrskaya

☽ ☾

heaven's tracker - speed + flight - rank e
luna & solis weapon - rank f
windstep style martial arts - rank f
stamina - rank f

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[Wolfe]

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[attr=class,punkiduoinneropacity] Scabbard shot forward with Polarity to Agnes resulted in a hit to the right knee of the Faunus. Agnes aura down to 80.

SPOILER: Click to show

E rank Polarity interacting against G rank durability/agility. No dodge attempt made, so more or less a direct hit. Scabbard is not part of Colton's official weapons slot, though, so does reduced damage. If this was a full strength full power hit with E rank, this would have done 55%.

Flower and Colton both firing into single target results in 2 partial hits for Flower. Agnes aura down to 35. This lowers her into the deep yellow. Hit to shoulder and torso.

SPOILER: Click to show

This was reiterated in my last post, but will just go ahead and do the damage here because it was 2 cycles ago. G rank agility/durability from Agnes going up against F rank marksmanship/F rank weapon from Flower and G rank marksmanship/E rank weapon from Colton. G rank agility is not enough to completely dodge that many bullets flying at point-blank range. Colton has established terrible marksmanship, so I'm not going to penalize for not writing a defense for the shotgun shells but note that at ranges below 5m even G rank marksmanship is accurate per the rules and I'm intentionally going lower than I could damage-wise. A full damage F rank attack against G rank durability would be around 44-45%. I'm counting the two partial hits as one from Flower and saying none hit from Colton. Any that hit from Colton against G rank durability would do 55% due to having an E rank weapon that is two ranks higher than the durability.

The semblance slash from Agnes was a direct hit, and furthermore is a critical hit that does double damage due to surprise factor. Flower's aura is reduced to 54 percent and she is in the yellow. The redirect and the inhuman speed of the attack combined into making a situation where Flower could not have predicted the attack's danger to her and thus Agnes gets away from that one scot free with a great chunk of damage dealt. Hit is to the opposite side of the shield, moving too quickly for Flower to effectively defend herself.

SPOILER: Click to show

Critical hits are discretion-based when posts are missed, and I choose to exercise that discretion here. It's E rank semblance interacting with D rank durability, so the total damage from a direct hit would normally be around 22%. With the critical hit, this is doubled to 44%. Flower was hit previously with a G rank strength based kick against her D-rank durability, which was 3 levels lower so would do between 1-5% damage per the rule that 3 ranks higher = essentially auto-win any contested check due to the immense difference.

Flower will move forward to attempt to punch Agnes with a flurry of blows from both her shield arm and her weapon that is newly transformed into its blade form and keep her attention while the repeat scabbard shot from Colton last turn will resolve later this cycle.

SPOILER: Click to show

Note: I don't really care in these threads what the resolution of most of the attacks are, but some resolution in posts is necessary. If attacks just aren't addressed, then I'm very comfortable stepping in with combat moderation posts in order to ensure that the attacks people make aren't just ignored. In the interest of moving things along, 72h post timer re-enabled as with all other class threads but not this one because I forgot when making the thread. Critical hits will be done against those who miss their post cycles in order for things to move along.

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[Qiu'li]

[attr="class","popqiu"] ❝May the crimson leaves show me the path I must follow.❞ wc: 714 | twc: 3652 Qiu'li

[attr="class","qiutext"] Qiu'li knew from the start that this wouldn't be an easy fight. Nikolas and him were like oil and water in that their fighting styles were complete opposites. One favored close quarter hand-to-hand combat, the other favored ranged area-of-effect fighting. Either way, Qiu'li was in the figurative and literal eye of the storm as his strikes went straight for Nikolas. The white haired man had amazing fighting sense and reflexes, as he instinctively turned his body to avoid the heavier of the two hits. The impact of his downward swing smashed into the ground and created a small crater as dirt began to fling upward into the air and into the raging whirlwind. Though as his attack narrowly missed, Qiu'li realized that he was in the perfect position to be counterattacked. Out of the corner of his eye, Qiu'li would notice Nikolas reached his hand downwards on his swordspear's shaft, which could only mean one thing: He was going to fire a round right at him. Under normal conditions, the unexpected shot would have definitely hit him. However, in this enraged state, all of his senses were heightened, and dodging such a shot would be pretty easy. However, in such close quarters and the fact that excessive movement meant putting him in the middle of Nikolas' semblance, the raven haired man had no choice but to minimize his dodges, meaning that he had to barely dodge the shot as he put his strength into his second attack. Nikolas was using the recoil of his shot to maneuver his weapon both offensively and defensively, though such movements would only waste more shots. The impact between Panlong and Stahlblesk reverberated throughout the windstorm, and he could tell that Nikolas felt the impact of his strike. However, since the swordspear was intertwined with the lower half of the segmented staff, he was unable to follow-up with a second blow to hurt him more. However, out of the corner of his eye, Qiu'li noticed Nikolas was about to backhand him aimed right at his face! A cheap shot, but not one that Qiu'li would let him get away with. He could easily dodge his punch, but there was a looming feeling that he was scheming something else to follow up with his attack, to which Qiu'li began to plan his own. As the backhand was fast approaching, Qiu'li would curl his body up just enough to move his head faster... Straight towards Nikolas' own! If he wanted to fight with their bodies, so be it, and Qiu'li used his increased strength to headbutt Nikolas directly, sending not only an immense amount of force into his skull, but to also disorient him in his own Semblance. However, by that time, the white haired lad already had his weapon in full swing towards his right side. There was no way to dodge this effectively without throwing himself into the windstorm. Therefore, instead of trying to contest this game of chicken, Qiu'li would play to his tune. Since their weapons were dislodged right before his attack, Qiu'li snapped his staff, causing the chains to retract and return to a single staff form, to which Qiu'li planted it in the ground to allow himself to climb upwards, causing Stahlblesk's crossguard to collide with his staff. Of course since it wasn't planted firmly, that meant that the staff would slide once it made impact, but it was enough for Qiu'li to follow Nikolas' momentum and land on his swordspear itself. Using it as a springboard, Qiu'li launched himself right off Stahlblesk and.. right into the Semblance itself? At least from Nikolas' perspective it might have, but Qiu'li's leap would be sufficient enough to escape the range of his Semblance... and right where his weapon Longtou was. He leapt once more towards it to pick it up and combine his weapon into it's glaive form before he took a stance. With no time to spare, Qiu'li wound his body up as he began performing full swings right at the center of the windstorm, sending sword beams right at him. Performing a variety of horizontal and vertical slashes made them unpredictable, combined with the low light effects of his Semblance and the disorienting headbutt would make for a bad time for the white haired man.

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Fènnù (+Strength +Agility +Projectile Sword Beam) | Rank E
Lóngtóu and Panlong | Rank F
Falling Ashes (Leap) | Rank F
Weapon Proficiency I (Martial Arts) | Rank F
Resilience of the Crimson Oaks I (Durability) | Rank F
Dance of the Wild Winds II (Acrobatics) | Rank E

[Colton Deraine]

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Bravery is believing in yourself, and that's one thing nobody can teach you.

One of the things that became a lot easier over time was being able to divert your attention in the middle of a fight to something else for a split second to get some kind of picture of what was going on. Unless the enemy didn’t have to follow the laws of gravity or momentum for some reason, there were split seconds of complete safety that could be exploited. Glances at the nearby fight between Flower and Agnes, usually, since that was the only one that could really influence his own in any way. The scabbard had flown in and blindsided the girl and knocked out the rest of her aura in a flash. That activated the suit on her that puffed out like a giant marsh mellow. The issue with that was Flower’s punch was midway through, and in the panic redirection his teammate managed to punch and probably break her own suit so that it also flashed red and puffed up completely. That took both of them out of the fight, effectively, even though Flower’s aura was still very obviously not depleted due to the fact that her transformation wasn’t cancelled.

Oh well, shit happened. The switch to offense was enough to land some crippling blows on his opponent, but not nearly fast enough. The only saving grace that prevented a complete reliance on his idiot third teammate was the fact that Caelum ran out of bullets fairly quickly due to him not reloading from before. He didn’t know exactly how many left the barrel out of the guns, but the Argus native really didn’t need to. The indicator in his training gear didn’t change color at all, still emitting yellow lights to indicate that his aura was still above twenty percent. Due to the distraction of his opponent in addition to the sideways stance he was adopting anyway, some of them ended up being glancing blows rather than direct hits which helped a lot in addition to the enhanced durability that Colton always had.

The shards of fire dust on the other boy’s body burned brightly and would completely burn through his aura soon, but he would go down swinging regardless. The good part about this, though, was that Colton didn’t need to indulge him at all. He didn’t need to parry or block anything, because he could just abuse Polarity one more time to keep his opponent tied down for the few seconds it would take for the fire dust to finish the job. Jumping backwards normally would put like six inches of distance in between himself and Caelum, but jumping backwards with his semblance allowed him to clear about ten meters very easily at the small cost of burning through his aura enough to bring him down into the red. He wasn’t in danger of running out, at least not yet, even with the extra use of doing the same trick with his bracer with his right hand instead that targeted the same leg that was hit and at least partially bound again to simply stall.

”Good fight.” he’d note flatly as he retreated, not bothering to hide the fact that he was done with this and not at all inclined to continue and risk getting tagged one too many times before the fire dust claimed its victim.

It wasn’t the most heroic way to win, sure, but risking a loss for pride was something that Colton had done more than enough of today. Going from offense directly to retreating in a split second was something that seemed completely unnatural, but that was one of the main benefits of Polarity. It allowed him to make those completely unnatural movements to constantly keep people on their toes. The weapon of the Argus native would transform as the motion was completed, and he would not hesitate to fire off the remaining four shells if Caelum decided to fly after him before his aura inevitably broke. There was the chance that he misjudged the guy’s aura levels, but there was no way in hell that he was off enough that another direct hit wouldn’t seal the deal. Simply waiting until the guy was close to melee range and firing off a shot that was nearly guaranteed to hit wasn’t very difficult, especially when the enemy was forced to reload, and Colton still had enough in the tank to either jump back one more time or transform the weapon and simply spear the fuck out of his opponent with a toss.

The second that Caelum’s aura broke, though, the Argus native would revert his shotgun back into its sword form and hold it in reverse grip in case his third teammate ended up getting his ass kicked. He couldn’t imagine a world where Qiu’li wasn’t low enough to get felled by one good Polarity-enhanced toss, and Colton’s low aura didn’t matter if he just didn’t get hit anymore. He simply would go in the opposite direction of where the enemies were fighting, because it didn’t matter where he stepped out of bounds when it came to the win conditions of the bout. Forty meters in any direction was the win condition, and if he was completely unopposed… well, then there was no need to rush things at all. Plus, at the end of the day, it would piss the idiot foreigner a lot more if he won his own duel only to watch Colton stroll nonchalantly over the finish line at the complete opposite end of the fighting area.

※ 6516 total words ✎ 920 words ✉ E rank semblance, E ranked martial arts, E ranked durability, E rank weapon enhancement, E ranked weapon, F rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Nikolas Burzanov]

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Qiu'li

474 words

heroes die with honor i'm no hero

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They were at a standstill, almost evenly matched with either of them landing many hits. But Nikolas was at a disadvantage in such close quarters, as Qiu'li's semblance made him much more effective at combat, compared to Nikolas' more support oriented semblance. As Nikolas' backhand approached Qiu'li's face, the mountain warrior suddenly lunged forward, catching Nikolas by surprise. Their heads smacked together, dishing out a damaging impact to both parties involved, although Nikolas got the worse of it. He uttered a short grunt of pain, not expecting such a hit, his aura blocking most of the impact, his jacket's hue falling down to yellow. [break][break]

As Nikolas stumbled back, reeling from the blow, Qiu'li seemed to take that opportunity to bounce off of Stahlblesk's blade, flying clear of the storm around Nikolas. But Nikolas was royally provoked now, his eyes holding a feral glint to it as he shook his head to clear it. Baring his teeth, Nikolas stared through the storm at Qiu'li, seeing him landing near his other weapon. Nikolas dropped his aura, shedding the protective shield as well as dispelling Stormheart, which was already beginning to die out, and instead began to rush towards the foreigner. Nikolas was halfway to the man when Qiu'li began to send out his sword beams.[break]
Nikolas reacted almost instinctively, jumping and sidestepping the several horizontal and vertical beams Qiu'li sent, which weren't many by the time the white haired warrior had reached the black haired one. A bang from Stahlblesk's barrel caused the recoil to bring Stahlblesk around at a whipping speed, the trajectory and speed of it wild with how uncontrollably Nikolas was wielding it, as he did not really care about it. The weapon came around at blistering speeds, not even aiming for Qiu'li, catching his weapon instead with the crossguard. The chaotic speed and nature of the swing, as well as the impact, was powerfully jarring enough that both weapons went flying off to the side, wrenched from the grips of both warriors. [break][break]

But Nikolas seemed to have expected that, or perhaps he didn't care, judging by the wild look in his eyes. Teeth bared, gray eyes flashing with a feral kind of excitement, Nikolas hand came around, not missing a beat from the double-disarm, aiming a vicious punch at Qiu'li's attractive jawline. Whether or not that first hit would connect, Nikolas would now proceed to engage the mountain man in a very unsportsmanlike tussle involving punches and kicks, without even caring about his aura or defence, blocking or taking any retaliatory punch that Qiu'li would send at him. No attempts to dodge, and no attempts to take the blows on his aura instead of his skin and flesh. Instead, Nikolas seemed to be in a fully berserk state, flinging an onslaught of aggressive attacks at Qiu'li in any way he could manage.[break][break]

ulla

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[Wolfe]

XP Distribution (10% group thread bonus included)

Colton: 71

49 + 71 = 120

Qiu’li: 39

104 + 39 = 143

Caelum: 49

78 + 49 = 127

Nikolas: 41

135 + 41 = 176

Agnes: 22

12 + 22 = 34

Flower: 23

16 + 23 = 39

Shade: 24

0 + 24 = 24