[Theloria Shadecloak]

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Instructor Shadecloak[attr=class,punkihover1]

2435 words

The beginning of the day was stock standard, with everyone being rounded up in the wee hours of the morning in order to hit that six in the morning deadline for takeoff. Students were rushed along carrying usually entirely too much shit on their backs, and Shade would have made them leave behind anything they couldn’t carry on their backs. If they were that bad at prioritizing gear, they had to start learning at some point. This was a Huntsman Internship, not a chaperoned vacation stay. The cargo plane they were on was rated to carry five people alongside some gear, and that’s exactly what it carried. It was a tight fit, and if anyone came up earlier in the morning smelling like shit Shade would have literally made them go back and shower with soap before coming back. Her sense of smell was better than average, and it was not smelling some mixture of shit, tobacco, and general stank the entire way over.

The ship they were currently on was a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) type aircraft commonly referred to as a ‘Bullhead’. It’s a tilt jet aircraft, meaning the jet engines can be tilted in order to takeoff, hover, or land in areas that may not have the space available for a runoff or a dedicated landing strip. It was much smaller than an airship and was typically used to ferry amount small groups of people alongside a small cargo load. There was a pilot and co-pilot in the front, but everyone else was outside of the cockpit in the cargo area where the trainees and Shade couldn’t sit without their legs touching from being so close.

The plane ride was roughly an hour and a half, and during that time Shade laid out the general schedule and what to expect from the week. They were going to be hitting three infestations of Grimm that were spread pretty far apart. After the first one, they would travel about twelve miles to the next and then roughly twenty miles to the last one where they would camp and clear a landing space for the Bullhead to pick them up on the way back. Maps were pulled out of a green backpack and the entire course was charted out with exceptional detail, stopping at various clean water sources and locations likely to have wildlife to hunt or edible plants along the way at various circled locations.

Ground rules were also laid out. Her orders were expected to be carried out, and any variations for any reason had to accomplish the same goal when it came to combat. Things changed moment to moment, and that was fine. In the wilderness, though, it was to the letter or they were simply going to call emergency evacuation with the offending student placed inside for out-processing for not being able to follow instructions. It was a threat of expulsion, essentially, made in the typical tone of extreme calm bordering on boredom that she usually laced her words with. Going rogue regardless of the reason put everyone’s lives at risk because it prevented Shade herself from focusing on the task at hand and being forced to waste time, energy, and aura to save the rogue from their own stupidity before it killed them. Having that happen in the middle of a battle turned an easy one into a challenging one, and a challenging one into a bloodbath because Shade’s skillset did not include being the ability to be an even passable meat shield.

Before they got to play wilderness adventure, however, the first infestation needed to be taken care of. They were being airdropped into the middle of town, and they had already passed over the town once to get a visual scan over what was there sent straight to Shade’s scroll. Shade had a larger scroll set on a shipping box in the middle of everyone and was going over an image of the town that they would be dropping into momentarily. She had her index finger, stretched to a point due to the claw-like gauntlets she wore as shooting gloves on the lower middle of the map next to what looked to be the remnants of what was once a statue.

”We’ll be dropping in this open region here next to the statue base. As previously mentioned, this entire region is deserted for at least the past few months due to Grimm attacks killing or driving off the villagers who lived here so anything that moves in this region is almost certainly hostile. In the last pass I counted about two dozen normal beowolves on the ground here along with at least one Alpha, but with the buildings the pack could easily be enough to have two or three of them. This will be the easiest of the three infestations we’re clearing out this week, and I mostly want to see how everyone reacts to adversity. We will get swarmed by all of them very quickly once we land, but not all at once.”

The tone of voice used by the Faunus was her usual: calm and on the verge of bored. It was extremely level, and every syllable was enunciated very clearly. While perhaps other Huntresses would be bouncing with excitement or outwardly looking forward to action, Shade had the outward demeanor of someone waiting in line at a coffee shop. There was no fire, no excitement, and no visible tenseness of any part of her body. If they were expecting her to change at all on the field compared to in class, the students would be sorely disappointed.

”Colton and Nikolas, I want you two up front. Your primary goal is holding up and stalling as many of the rank and file as possible. When you give up ground, choose a direction either east or south because they give you straight shots with plenty of open land to maneuver. Do not retreat north under any circumstances, you can and will be overwhelmed if you go inside a building. Argent, your primary duty will be taking out any Grimm that try to flank your front line. They won’t be able to get all of them, and you’re going to watch their backs. Qiu’li, it’s your primary goal to essentially be the guardian angel for the early part of this until all the other Grimm show themselves. You’re the most mobile, so can jump to where you need to be much easier than any other student here. The larger ones especially are a bit more mobile and will try to jump off of the roofs of nearby buildings to get the drop on you – and you’re the one in charge of looking for those types of threats and acting accordingly.”

”With the amount of normal beowolves in the area, it’s safe to assume that there will be multiple Alphas in the area. I’ll be the one taking care of those, but if there’s two or three I can only reliably engage one at a time and have no way of pissing them all off at once. If one of them engages with you, I want one of you to activate that earpiece and let me know so I know to get back to where you are as soon as possible. Do not activate that shit now, because I do not want to listen to your mouth breathing the entire time I’m trying to fight. The original formation won’t work if an Alpha is leading the pack, and your objective changes from ‘stall but also thin their numbers’ to ‘stall and don’t die’ pretty quickly. Alphas are more than twice as big as a normal Beowolf and much more armored up, so they’re really easy to spot.”

”They will almost always lead with a leap from a distance in the open field, using rooftops and other elevated surfaces as platforms to do so. If one jumps towards you, you have to drop whatever it is you are doing and rush towards the attack. If you go backwards away from it the Alpha will get you anyway because you are not faster than its leap. If you go side to side it will simply turn and run you down faster than you can react. If you run forwards and go down low, though, it will overshoot you and be forced to turn completely around and buy you time to get ready. The ideal situation is that Nikolas and Qiu’li at this point focus entirely on the rank an file beowolves with Nikolas activating his semblance as a buffer and Colton keeping the Alpha occupied while Argent gets free hits in.”

”I’ll likely have a trail of normal beowolves following me around, do not attempt to help. Do not attempt to help me in fights against Alphas, either, because all it does is distract both of us from doing our jobs. I’m fantastic at taking down single targets, let me do that. You focus on the larger rank-and-file and only attack when engaged on. If there’s just one Alpha, you’ll probably never see it, and this will likely be pretty boring. If there’s two, one might engage but you should be fine to just stall until I get there. If there’s three, you all get your first taste of danger a bit earlier than the second infestation but will win if you all work together. Lose your cool, though, and you’ll lose your head. If you can last a max of five minutes alone, I’ll be back to mop up the rest and we can proceed normally for the other two. If you can’t last even that long as a group of four, then I’ll just do most of the work myself for the rest of the week while you watch.”

With that, the woman stood up and pulled a dark green backpack that seemed to be entirely too light to hold anywhere close to a week’s worth of supplies over her shoulders before giving out one last bit of direction before the drop: ”Double check where you kept your dust and make sure you bring all your gear with you. The plane’s not coming back for a week, so if you forget your weapon or your water you’re shit out of luck. Drop in about two minutes, don’t land on your head. If you can’t fight with your gear on feel free to drop it somewhere you think is safe, but if a Grimm rips it apart after you do it’s your fault. Wait at least a few seconds for me to get their attention before dropping so you can have a couple of seconds to set up.”

Contrary to her usual dress suits that she wore on campus, Shade was in a much more ruggedly practical attire this go around. A green cloak with its hood down covered most of her form, including partially the leather pauldrons on both of her shoulders. Brown trousers and boots alongside a dark leather jerkin over a green undershirt completed the ensemble alongside dark green metal gauntlets that ended in claw-like tips. Her weapon was a jet-black western style longbow as tall as she was, currently strung and slung across her back. She had two visible closed quivers on both sides of her hips with the tip of the arrow at the top of the quiver. She grabbed her larger scroll and folded it to stow away in her backpack and walked directly towards where the ramp would open up and they would be dropping about twenty meters above ground. For those who didn’t have any skill landing from falls, they were provided with an extra dose of air dust to activate in order to make their landing at least not do any damage to their aura unless they were clumsy beyond all belief.

They were all in a group voice call on their scrolls with earpieces in but the voice shut off, but Shadecloak momentarily leaves the call with the students to connect with the cockpit. ”Thanks for the lift, fellas. I want you to open up the ramp at about thirty meters if possible so I can get a couple more seconds to scout.” there was a slight pause to wait for a reply before she added: ”Thanks, appreciate it a lot. Fly safe.” before dropping the call and going back to the group voice chat with the students and turning off her audio once more.

The plane stopped all movement forwards and backwards at this point as the jets had fully turned in order for them to start their descent. The ramp slowly opened, introducing a peek to the outside world and the image of beowolves both large and small looking up at the ship and fully alerted due to the heavy noise the Bullhead was making on its descent. The golden lion’s tail of the Faunus swished back and forth slightly when she made eye contact with one beowolf that was decidedly not like the others due to its bone armor and immense stature that was climbing up on the building north of the drop zone. With both hands, she got the longbow over her head and then into her left hand and then momentarily opened the closed quiver on her right side to fish out two arrows that she would hold with her shooting hand. Then Shade shifted her body weight and leaped wordlessly forward in the direction of the Alpha. The second she left the relative safety of the ship, all the Grimm in the area perked up and looked right at her as she fell. The top of the building had several large holes on it where the broken-down interior was visible.

She had specifically instructed the trainees to never go inside a building in this town for much the same reasons why she was herself aiming for one of those gaps in the roof – it was unstable ground and it requires exceptional balance and maneuverability in order to not risk at least a full story drop. The lesser beowolves that followed her inside would trip and fall in droves trying to keep up and hopefully some would get impaled or crushed by some of the wreckage and be killed that way. It would also force the Alpha to slow down due to being forced to balance correctly just as she was, except the Grimm didn’t have a ranged weapon… let alone one that required next to no focus to aim when confined to the limited and predictable spacing like the inside of a housing complex.

SPOILER: Click to show

48 hour event timer enabled, which means skips can and will occur on no notice delays. This thread is exempt from the normal rule about not upgrading mid-thread. If you get any upgrades after the time of this post, you are free to use it in-character here. This thread is Injury Enabled, which means that severe injuries can be given to characters without roleplayer permission.

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[Wolfe]

Silkrest was once one of the villages that ringed the outskirts of Kuchinashi to the south and a stop in the road for most travelers going the dangerous land route to either the city of thieves or the longer trek to the capital. Its story and the story about the other cities on those outskirts, though, is a very familiar one that happened to countless other upstart villages over time. One person with money and influence decides that living in a major city is too oppressive and that the government has too much of a hand in their finances and lives and gathers a group of people to construct the next great utopia for the citizen without the massive crime of Kuchinashi or the tedious bureaucracy of Mistral.

When the entire kingdom is peaceful and there is an abundance of Huntsmen and money flowing in from trade, these upstart villages receive support occasionally from the Kingdom and those Huntsmen when they need it and it is convenient. A village could go on indefinitely in these conditions, because it is only once in a while that any sort of assistance is required. When the entire kingdom is on edge and there is a shortage of Huntsmen and a struggling economy, however, nobody can spare the time to help out a smaller village in the middle of nowhere and eventually they get attacked.

Bandits come first, looting the area and torching everything in sight and inspiring fear and despair. The Grimm come later to kill the survivors and feed off of that fear and despair until there is nothing left. So many Grimm are attracted that a pack at least temporarily forms, and sometimes they just don’t leave. Beowolves are the weakest type of Grimm normally, but they are also the most likely to form these groups and stick together in large numbers. This species is divided into three categories, though two of them are extremely similar.

The small beowolves are younger, having just come out of whatever nightmares that create Grimm in the first place. They have enhanced speed and acrobatic ability to maneuver comparable to a trainee in their first year, but are not durable or strong. Beowolves grow bigger as they age, and these larger beowolves become strong enough to have strength to match their maneuverability and thus become bigger individual threats. The real strength of this species of Grimm, however, was numbers.

The largest type of Beowolf has mutated enough to where bone-like armor covers much of its body and its hide is much thicker than average. It is multiple times larger than even the largest unarmored Beowolf and other lesser instances of its kind flock to it. While a pack forming without an Alpha is possible, these are usually temporary and can simply be waited out if it is some distance away from a settlement. One that is bound together by an Alpha, however, is staying as a group until that Alpha dies. These are the greatest of their species and have the speed, strength, and acrobatic ability of the older unarmored specimens but are much better at each, to the level of a huntsman candidate entering their third year. Unlike the other subtypes, however, the Alpha has the durability to match alongside a devastating leap ability that allows it to quickly and stealthily get into a position where it can use its superior strength to pin an opponent to rip it apart with its claws and teeth.

While the Alpha stalking the rooftop would follow the imperious Huntress inside the remnants of the building, the students would find a waiting audience of their own forming on the ground. Four smaller beowolves would meet them moments after they landed, with another half dozen larger ones forming together about twenty-five meters to the west. Three more smaller beowolves would rush out from both the east and the south and be upon the trainees before the group of larger ones, however, leaving them next to no time to get their bearings and giving them perhaps their first taste of what being attack by a beowolf pack felt like almost instantly after landing. Each of the smaller beowolves that attacked fought like a rabid actual wolf might, with clawing and lunges forward in attempts to sink their teeth into trainee flesh.

SPOILER: Click to show

721 words

Beowolf ability listings:

Small Beowolf

Speed: F
Acrobatics: F

Large Beowolf

Strength: F
Speed: F
Acrobatics: F

[Argent Steele]

There’s always a king. Always a queen. Always a wolf.
But he who holds the ace, always has the last word.

❝

It was honestly surprising how calming the process was for Argent - almost identical, in fact, to the one he, Shin, and Jade undertook whenever they were resupplying at a town, albeit needing to purchase some of the equipment that hadn’t made it with him into the school before he did so. It reminded him of good times, and that had the young Faunus firmly in his comfort zone as he went about his week, heading into Mistral more than a few times across the days between registering and embarking to stock up on items he was missing.

Part of what he needed was already with him - a battered and worn dull black waterproof affair of a backpack, a thick dark gray cloak with a hood that was as beaten up as said backpack, a tactical utility belt with various pouches that he didn’t wear in the day to day because it simply wasn’t needed when he carried a schoolbag - all mementos from the time he spent in the wilderness with Shin and Jade prior to entering Haven. But other things were lacking, and he spent time hunting those down in the unfamiliar urban maze of the city near the academy. A mess tin and collapsible stove with civilian grade fire dust to start it, and two packs of solid wax fuel tablets and a box of waterproofed matches should the starters fail. Hot food was a luxury that Argent knew they probably couldn’t afford as a whole, but if things went awry and they ran out of water, the old fail safe method of boiling from some puddle or errant muddy stream might come in handy. Four one-liter canteens would hold what he could bring from Haven, which would also be enough for a two day stint without fresh water if need be. Three of those went in the backpack, while one was strapped to his hip in a dedicated pouch on the belt. More important items such as his student identification card, his Scroll, a handheld torchlight, extra batteries for his Scroll and said torchlight, a survival pocket knife, a wad of cash (he would leave his wallet behind in his trunk, it wasn’t rated for situations like these), water purification pills, gauze and tape, and minor medicines - painkillers, charcoal pills, and fever medications - all were also stashed neatly and strapped down in pouches on the belt, so that if he ever had to drop the backpack and run, or if it was otherwise compromised, he would still have those items on his person, making an otherwise bad situation significantly more manageable.

Toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste barely larger than half his finger were sealed into a plastic bag and stashed within the pack. Argent didn’t bother packing a razor like some others would, as he didn’t grow facial hair in the first place with his scales in the way. A small towel about the length of his forearm, made of quickly drying synthetic fiber, a roll of toilet paper, insect repellent, and a tin of talcum powder. A week in the wild definitely could cause scale rot to start appearing on various places of his body if he wasn’t careful, so said talcum powder was definitely needed to stave off the worst of it. Three changes of underwear and a set of extra clothes just in case, and the focus now shifted to food. Jerky, dried fruits, and tortillas made up the bulk of the selection, with caffeinated candy bars sprinkled liberally in and a bag of peanut butter for good measure. Hiking and combat in succession had a propensity to drain energy quicker than one could restore it, and could mean exhaustion the next day even after a full night’s rest. Argent distinctly remembered learning this to great chagrin when he’d tripped over his own feet while hiking a mountain trail with both Shin and Jade in the early morning, and ending up more than twenty meters down said mountain after a rough tumble through patches of bramble and grass. It wasn’t something one tended to forget in a hurry.

Through the process of wearing the pack and hopping around a few times to ensure everything was secured and wouldn’t jerk around while moving at any speed, Argent figured it to be around seven kilograms, most of that food and water. A very manageable weight and bulk, just enough to keep him through the entire week with allowance to either end of up to a day for complications. With the extra hip mounted quiver and arrows, the total weight of everything approximated 14 kilos, and he was well used to carrying six on a daily basis, so it wouldn’t be hard to acclimatize beyond the first few hours. Over the weekend, the Faunus also inspected his waxed cotton long sleeved jacket and made sure it remained good to use in every way that mattered. The weekend was spent sewing up some frayed edges and reapplying the wax where it’d worn thin in some areas - Jade had taught him that much, at least.

The day came. Argent woke in the wee hours of the morning from a very early night the night before, enjoyed a quiet breakfast with only a few others around, and returned to his dorm to trip over to the toilet and shower, in that order. It would be his last for a while, and he lingered in there for longer than he should have, savoring the hot water. Toweling off and drying his hair, the Faunus dressed up in his chosen outfit for the expedition. A white long sleeved shirt under his dark grey waxed cotton jacket, with black trousers and thick socks tucked within solid black boots. Over these, black protective plates were strapped to the inner side of his non-dominant right arm to protect it from the backlash of the bow’s string, as well as over his knees and elbows to protect him from any particularly hard knocks he might take in the course of climbing trees and crawling around to find a good vantage point in general. His quivers were strapped to his thighs, with more than double the amount of arrows he usually carried. The belt was tightened around his hips, and lastly, the backpack strapped into place over the dark grey cloak that would protect him from the elements.

As things started to pick up and Shadecloak started to make her presence known, in some cases quite loudly, Argent quietly and without fuss proceeded to the designed Bullhead and waited by the ramp, nodding to each member of the team as they gathered around. While he probably would get their names wrong a few times in the coming days, he did remember their faces and their silhouettes - the dour fellow with the two handed broadsword and the collapsible staff, the feral looking wielder of the sword and shield, and, of course, the contemptuous gaze of the spear wielder he’d met in the Doctor’s class some time before. That last one seemed particularly subdued, though for whatever reason he didn’t know. Still, he would not let his dislike for the other get in the way of performance.

Filing in after the others, the young Faunus moved to take the seat opposite Shadecloak’s own, reasoning that as a ranged archer he would have better luck dropping in to assess the situation before the others came in to secure it. Alternatively, if he could take a few potshots from the ship before even landing and continuing the battle in earnest, it could easily tilt a balanced battle in their favor without him being stuck behind the three others of their group.

Argent listened and watched intently as Shadecloak discussed first the objective, then the terrain. It was impossible to remember them all at a glance, so he pulled out his Scroll and took a picture of the map and all the information contained within, in case they should ever be separated. He would pore over it later in private, the first chance he got. The rules were simple enough, and he acknowledged in the affirmative when it was appropriate to do so, straightening up when it came to the battle plan - more than he already was, at least.

After having their roles laid out, Argent took the initiative to speak up before they disembarked as he checked and double checked the pouches on his belt and how secured his pack was to himself, mentioning the limits of his Semblance and his ability, his intention to maintain a vantage point on the remains of the statue and what the others could expect in terms of support at any given time. As the only primarily ranged attacker, he could reliably hit Beowolves at ranges up to 24 meters - perhaps for a little bit further than that, given that he would be attempting to remain on the high ground as much as possible, but also that his accuracy would decrease rapidly beyond that.

And then they were descending. Argent’s vague notion of a plan of raining fire down on the Grimm was dashed when Shadecloak mentioned to let her go first - not that he minded, really. Given that she had been very adamant about not trying to help her so that they could both do their jobs, Argent was understandably very hesitant to even try. Then the professor leapt over the ramp, and he unbuckled his seatbelt, watching as she hit the buildings below.

“Shadecloak went into the building,” he reported to the rest as he readied himself to do the same, the Bullhead descending with every passing moment. Twenty seconds passed as he waited for the right moment. “One Alpha and some of the pack going for her. Only a few left. Four near the drop zone and six more to the west. Jumping in three… two… one… going.”

Throwing himself out into the air, Argent did his best to angle himself towards the building north of the statue he intended to use as a vantage point. When he was close enough, the Faunus flared his Aura into the provided vial of Air Dust and slowed his descent. Subtle Calamity shifted into its spear form, which he proceeded to jam point first into the crumbling wall and hold on for dear life as he slowed to a stop, slamming into the ground feet first. The aspiring Huntsman tucked into a roll to get rid of excess momentum, whirled around to wrench his weapon from the rubble, and sprinted across the five or so meters to the statue, climbing upwards until he was perched atop it in a hunter’s crouch, arrow nocked and ready to fire at any incoming Grimm - the first arrow was loosed at the closest of the three that had climbed out of the buildings to the south and east, missing it's head by a hair. Argent gritted his teeth and nocked another. This one didn't miss, and as the others came dropping down he loosed a third and fourth arrow, killing the second of the three and pinning the third to the ground by its front paw.

@ ● 1857 words ● 1857 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Colton Deraine]

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

Flipping through his emails that morning gave Colton some very interesting information. First off, it seemed like the planned Bounty mission was cancelled due to professor Jay suddenly getting sick due to temporary food poisoning. It was a good thing that he signed up for the Search and Destroy mission, because had he gone with his actual strengths he’d be part of that unlucky student group who had to scramble to get placed at the last possible second. Unlucky them, but that’s how life was sometimes. Sometimes you were on top of the world, and sometimes you ate a bad burrito and got food poisoning.

There was no great hurry in the morning, because Shade preferred to simply wake them up earlier in order to prevent such a thing. That was fine and all but waking up before the sun was even up was such a drag. They each got three extra uses of dust, so Colton stocked up by getting two doses of fire dust to replenish the supply in his backsword and one of gravity dust because it was his signature type. It gave him the ability to get himself out of a bad situation or to completely subvert enemy expectations, and if this was a mission against humans then Colton may have even just gone with three doses of the stuff because he loved using it that much. Against Grimm, though, the element of surprise was a lot harder to do with the very limited ranged capabilities that the Argus native possessed so he settled on just stocking up on that fire dust with that one emergency dose in case something unexpected came up out of the woodwork.

Scouting was nice and all, but the reality changed on the ground pretty quickly and it was hard to guarantee that a tougher Grimm type than a Beowolf or an Ursa wouldn’t show up in their entire journey, so it was good to have that ‘Oh fuck!’ insurance in case that happened. While it was true he almost never retreated, it wasn’t because he had any sort of aversion to it or anything. The fact of the matter was that he was laughably immobile in comparison to some of his classmates, so once he committed to a fight he was stuck in that fight until either someone else came in or it was decided one way or another between him and his opponent. Against the creatures of Grimm, it was a losing bet for him to assume he could outrun any threat, so he simply had to be good enough to either win or force a stalemate for long enough for help to come.

Short brown hair and intense brown eyes were immediately visible to his classmates and normal, but today he adopted a more militaristic battle uniform than most. An iron cuirass adorned the boy’s torso, and his left arm was covered from the wrist to past the middle of his arm with a white metal vambrace that was his folded-up shield. His right arm was covered up in a similar manner with manica-style armor that covered the outer half of his arm with curved and overlapping segments of metal plates. Combat missions meant combat gear, and the more metal that Colton had on his body the more versatile he was in a pinch. The usual bracers and greaves he wore were good when heavy combat wasn’t expected but had some severe limitations in regards to what they were capable of. With this much metal on, though, he could basically use Polarity to do whatever the hell was needed.

His hands were left uncovered, his head was unadorned except for aviator sunglasses, and his legs and feet were protected by what looked to be an unbroken line from the gray iron boots to greaves that went up to his mid-thigh. Beneath that were dark jeans to complete the ensemble of gray and white. His sword was sheathed on his left hip, kept in a gray and navy-blue scabbard made of steel. A gray hooded cloak was across the Argus native’s shoulders as well, with a larger gray camping backpack over top of it.

The fact of the matter was that he was much less of a wilderness survivor than most people in his group, and he was well aware of that fact. To compensate, he was more than prepared to carry a bit more kit in order to make sure he wasn’t fucked while he was out there. This was his first time going a week in the actual wilderness, but it wasn’t like Mistral was short on specialty stores or that the intranet didn’t give him a nice itemized list of the shit he needed to bring. He wasn’t exactly sure how to use some of the shit that he had to bring, but he didn’t need to because other people did. That was part of the joy of teamwork and all that, the fact that he didn’t need to be universally competent because someone else knew what bush to take a shit next to.

The ride over to the village, Silkrest, was rather uneventful. Professor Shadecloak went over maps and a general game plan for the week, and when they actually got over the city she ordered the pilots to do a scouting run and made a battle plan for this particular infestation from her scroll. It wasn’t exactly a secret that he didn’t regard two of his teammates for this run in the greatest esteem, but he was good at keeping his distaste in check at least for the moment. He was given the most important role with the highest danger alongside Nikolas in case everything went well, and if an Alpha showed up he had it alone. That worked out just fine for him, frankly, because it let him take the brunt of the damage and it meant that he could influence much more of the fight without disobeying any orders.

Brown eyes searched the field below them, though his view was blocked by both Shadecloak and Argent from where he sat on the ship. He noticed that their teacher only pulled out two arrows before jumping out, which was either a sign of extreme skill or extreme cockiness. Given the fact that the woman didn’t seem to be capable of feeling human emotion, he was comfortable thinking about it for about half a second by assuming that someone who didn’t feel fear probably had the steadiest hands and thus the best aim. Maybe that’s why all the archer types tended to be emotionally dead… it was an actual benefit to their shooting mechanics to be completely calm all the time.

Argent got up first, which probably wasn’t the intended plan, but Colton wasn’t about to sit there and bitch about it seconds before they were dropping hot in a combat zone or anything. The Faunus noted that their professor had gone into the same building that she explicitly told them not to go near, which drew the Alpha over to her alongside some of the pack. He couldn’t see straight down due to Argent’s body, but the Faunus continued to provide information. Four on their drop zone with six more to their west. That was information he could work with, frankly.

While Argent counted out loud, Colton got up behind him and counted down with his raised right hand. He jumped two seconds after the archer wordlessly, making a fist with his hand to signify zero before leaping out of the plane himself. The shield on his arm, Omen, unfolded into a concave circular shield roughly 76 centimeters in diameter after Colton undid the strap that kept its folded-up form attached to his arm and activated his quirk to fan the shield out to full diameter before moving on to draw his sword to make use of those precious seconds he spent descending. Regret was a longer backsword that had a blade roughly 89 centimeters long with a single potent cutting edge with noncutting ‘back’ of the blade being thickened up to provide extra strength. The blade had a knuckle bow hilt and a spear tip to make thrusting a distinct possibility, and while he drew the blade his brown gaze looked across the field and simply confirmed everything that Argent had said about the nearby Grimm.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Argent either decided to disregard the order to avoid the north or simply fucked up his landing. Not everyone had the same sort of practice that a primary combat school would give you, after all, so it was understandable. What wasn’t understandable, though, was the fact that he immediately booked it and didn’t even attempt to defend himself against the Grimm in the area and instead made a beeline for the statue. It showed a lot of trust, sure, but it also showed reckless stupidity because if he wanted a clear line to reposition he should have just swallowed his ego for two seconds and let Nikolas or himself jump first to draw the attention of the Grimm and actually followed directions. They were supposed to be the ones actually keeping their attention and being forced to divert in order to save a teammate from their own stupidity compromised their ability to actually do their own job against the bigger group in the west that would surely descend upon them soon. It could have been nice and orderly if that fuckhead had just allowed one of the fucking vanguard to drop first like they were supposed to. Instead, however, he forced Colton to save his ass from getting tackled to the ground by a beowolf before he ever made it to the statue in the first place, which was fucking annoying if nothing else.

His shield was tossed to intercept any Grimm that went after Argent before its owner hit the ground, and his sword shot towards the next nearest Grimm tip-first as soon as the landing was completed in order to buy the brunette enough time to ditch that heavy as fuck camping backpack to the ground and toss it at the base of the statue. The sword would boomerang back, but the shield would linger and cover Argent’s mad dash to safety before veering back to Colton’s position at all. His relentless training of his semblance lately had paid some dividends, and he found the manipulation of his usual equipment much easier than normal and could put more force and speed behind the metal itself. He didn’t bother to activate the dust in either of his weapons at this point, because there was no need. The brunette had a limited supply of that, and it needed to be saved for when they were actually under threat by something other than their own stupidity. God damn it, why did he have to be surrounded by fucking morons all the time? Why couldn’t they fall off a bridge or something when they were a stupid child rather than somehow having the luck or the diligent parents required for them to somehow survive their suicidal impulses for long enough to become his problem? Fucking hell.

※ 1862 total words ✎ 1862 words ✉ D 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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Colton Deraine Argent Steele Qiu'li

1007 words

heroes die with honor i'm no hero

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The night before the rising dawn was a night of restless sleep. He went to bed early, anticipating the fact that he would need extra hours of sleep to counter the shallow sleep he'd have. It wasn't anxiety, not in the least, but rather... Anticipation. The thought of killing Grimm, the first time he could do so after he joined this strenuous academy, held him rapt. Tossing and turning in bed, managing to get enough sleep to be fully rested, yet most of his night plagued with vivid dreams of his past, as well as the slaughter of Grimm that he wanted to do. [break][break]

He was up before sunrise, gearing up for the long trip to the wild country. His bag wasn't as big as most would expect, only a moderate sized backpack, filled with non-perishable and efficient food like various meat jerky and dried fruit, maximizing space. Several small bottles of water, including a couple that contained blue flavoured re-hydration and electrolyte rich drinks. He packed a single set of extra clothes, matching the one he would be wearing. Extra ammunition to replace the ones he would use in the field. The Lightning Dust he was allotted for the quest, also in his belt. A utility knife, a cleaning rag and a couple rolls of gauze. His standard pack whenever he would be out in the wilderness hunting Grimm.[break][break]

He dressed silently, in a dark room that was slowly lightening with the rising sun's rays filtering in through the windows. Black pants, made of durable denim, fitting but not tight, nor loose. White button up, light and flexible. A leather vest, with a pauldron on the left shoulder. Leather bracers on his left arm. Nothing on the right. A belt that held several magazines for Stahlblesk. Black leather combat boots, strapped tightly. He took a box of cigarettes and his lighter, just in case he desperately needed a smoke afterwards, or just for the comfort of it's familiar weight in his pockets.[break][break]

By the time it was showtime, he was already there, unusually punctual, his face neutral but his eyes, the stormy grey seemed to burn with a deep fire. The fire of hatred, aimed towards the Grimm. He was looking forward to this. But he remembered his promise to Shadecloak, and when they were boarding and Shadecloak went past him, if their eyes met, he'd give her a short nod. He remembered.[break][break]

He stayed silent throughout the hour and half journey, simply sitting in a hunched over position, his eyes closed, his face calm yet his mind racing. But as they approached the location, his mind entered a state of quiet, like the calm before a storm. His head cleared, his senses seemed to come into focus with a cutting sharpness. He was ready. He absorbed all the details that Shadecloak presented with short nods, or no reactions, the same when she began to outline her orders and plans. He simply hoped his thirst to prove himself to be up to the challenge she had given him would be greater than his thirst for blood when it came to the Grimm.[break][break]

It was time. Shadecloak dropped, and Nikolas stood up, slowly walking over to the place where Stahlblesk had been tied to the wall of the transport plane, near the ramp. As he unbuckled it, he registered Argent going in first, a small frown coming to his face. That was not part of the plan, and now that their cover had suddenly dived into the heat, a small grimace came onto his face. Colton seemed to have the same thoughts, and Nikolas approached the ramp right behind Colton. He allowed the brunette a second of a head start, so they wouldn't collide mid air, before following, simply stepping off and dropping down. As he fell, one hand gripped his spear, his other brought out the Air dust they had been given for the landing. He followed Colton's lead, knowing that right now, priority was covering for Argent. [break][break]

As he neared the ground, he activated the Air dust, but instead of aiming it directly opposite of his descent, he aimed it diagonally. It slowed his descent to a much more manageable level, but also gave him a boost towards the direction that the four Grimm near Argent were. He saw Colton throwing his weapons out at the Grimm nearest to Argent, so his boosted descent was aimed towards the other two Grimm, first objective to draw their attention to him than Argent.[break][break]

He hit the ground somewhat hard, his knees buckling from the force, the previous boost making him slide forward on the ground a few feet, bringing him closer to his targets, his spear already flashing in a horizontal spinning sweep, aiming a slash at both Grimm. He wasn't aiming to kill them right then and there with that attack, but his main objective was to switch their focus from Argent to him. His slide ended and he entered a stance, keeping both Grimm at a distance where he could lunge or slash with his 245cm long spear while keeping their claws or teeth away, keeping his attention focused on them both, trusting Colton and Qiu'li to have his back. Definitely a risk, but teamwork demanded risks. If the Grimm he had engaged would attempt to pursue Argent, Nikolas would respond with a lightning quick jab of his spear, and maybe reposition, more aimed at threatening than harming, to keep their attention on him and to maintain the distance advantage. If they tried to break past him, he'd sweep out to either catch them with his blade or make them back off again. Grimm could sense, and were attracted, to negative feelings, and Nikolas was definitely exuding a lot of negativity. A lot of hatred, burning with grief and the desire for vengeance. Oh they would notice him alright. This was where he felt most at home, and he couldn't help the small feral smile that came onto his face as he faced the Grimm.[break][break]

ulla

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[Qiu'li]

[attr="class","popqiu"] ❝May the crimson leaves show me the path I must follow.❞ wc: 1300 | twc: 1300 Qiu'li

[attr="class","qiutext"] Preparation was essential for any excursion, and this one was no different. Those that came under-prepared were at an immediate disadvantage as well as the long run, and those that over-packed would be over-encumbered or rely too much on their supplies and would be at a disadvantage if they lose them. After signing up for Professor Shade's internship and concluding the classes for the day, Qiu'li paid a visit over to the Wind District to start stocking up on the bare essentials. Moderation was key according to Master Sattota, and Qiu'li followed that advice to a T. He packed relatively light, using a regular sling bag as his primary means of carrying supplies. His daily training and minimalistic lifestyle meant that Qiu'li had little to pack for the journey. Since it was a week long, and given the nature of this internship, they would have to be on the move and vigilant, therefore being able to move and fight while carrying his pack effectively was important. For the most part, the small compartments contained daily hygiene essentials, while the larger compartments contained the rest of his supplies such as a large canteen filled with water, rope, a bandage roll, and a small burner set with green tea leaves, dried nuts, and ginger. The following morning, Qiu'li began his morning stretch routine, making sure that he was limber and prepared for the journey ahead. As the sun began to peek over the top of the mountains surrounding Haven Academy, the raven-haired man slipped on his signature clothes from Forever Fall: A thick, fur-lined, blue robe and linen pants. Lightweight climbing boots, his red sash, and leather armor which consisted of spaulders and a pair of tough fur-lined black gauntlets. On his waist was a leather loop used to hold his weapon on his waist as well as a smaller loop to hold his folded up form of his second weapon. While he traded defense for versatility, Qiu'li did not intend on trying to be a hero and take on multiple opponents at once. He learned his lesson the first several times. Not again. As Qiu'li departed his room for the meet-up area, he spotted the VTOL 'Bullhead' and the green haired Huntress directing the others to the vehicle that they would be departing in. It was relatively cramped, though the general smaller pack that Qiu'li carried meant a bit less of an uncomfortable ride. Since Qiu'li was the first to sign up during the internships, he didn't know who his other teammates for this expedition would be, and his brow only furrowed a bit more as his scowl remained unchanged. It was Nikolas, Argent, and Colton. It was very apparent that he did not get along with the brown haired lad. If he had the choice, he'd probably try to avoid him in general. However, life is full of unexpected outcomes, and this just so happened to be another one. While Qiu'li would reluctantly convince himself that teamwork is essential for a successful outcome, there was a less than enthusiastic desire to be stuck next to the arrogant man as he avoided eye contact with him. In order to take his mind off the situation, he focused his attention on the professor and listened to the debriefing quietly as they were en route to their destination: Silkrest. The plan was pretty straightforward. Three checkpoints to reach, exterminate the Grimm, stay alive. Though as she went on about the details of the Grimm that they would be facing, a drip of worry overcame Qiu'li. He was a good fighter if it was a singular one-on-one fight, however when it came to group fights, the raven-haired man did rather poorly. Whether it's the fault of his own or not is irrelevant, but this means that he has to trust his teammates to keep each other alive. He turned his head as Professor Shadecloak spoke up his name and assigned his role as a 'guardian angel'. What did that mean? What's an 'angel'? Darn, he wished he had brought his textbook with him to look it up, but he supposed that he'd have to check it out later. Either way, she explained that he would be provided assistance where it was needed the most while keeping an eye on the rooftops for ambush attacks. Qiu'li wasn't a strong fighter, but his mobility meant that he'd be more or less a This meant that he had to land there with his acrobatic finesse and be prepared to warn his teammates ahead of time, or be prepared to intercept the larger Grimm group, which seemed highly undesirable since he doesn't do well against groups of enemies. As the Bullhead came to a slow, he knew that it was almost time to drop. Professor Shadecloak exchanged some words with the pilot before turning to face the forming crowds of monstrous beings known as Grimm. They were gathered at the grounds and on top of weak-looking buildings. He listened to Argent speak up about what he noted as well as the Professor's actions. She was going to take on the Alpha and lead them away from them while they had to deal with... four Grimm immediately below them with six more to the west of them. One by one, the other members dropped out of the VTOL and descended towards the ground. As Qiu'li eyed the situation from above, he gave a questioned look. It seems Argent had overshot by a bit and was about to be descended upon by the immediate four Grimm while aiming in the southeastern direction. There was likely another group of incoming Grimm that he was focused on, to which the scaly Faunus was most likely entrusting the other three to cover him from the four waiting below. Not an ideal situation, but one that Qiu'li would have to work with. From what he saw, Colton had dropped right after and engaged the immediate few of them with his shield and his backsword while Nikolas intercepted another two to keep them at bay. He weighed his options as Qiu'li drew Longtou, his ringed broadsword, and Panlong, his three-section staff. With a quick snap, Panlong became a single staff as he inserted Longtou into the opening at the other end, completing the roughly 2 meter long glaive form of his weapon aptly named Lóng páoxiāo. Right, there was no need to use non-lethal strikes. In this situation, it was life-or-death, and Qiu'li was not planning on dying today. Once more, he looked upon the situation before getting a running start and leapt out of the bullhead, plummeting straight down near the statue. Recalling the Professor's warning about entering buildings, Qiu'li considered falling onto the building a little south of the statue and gaining a vantage point, but the last thing he wanted was to disturb another hidden group of Grimm and make the fight more difficult than it needed to be. The raven haired man hurled his weapon downward towards one of the smaller Grimm that Colton had thrown his weapon at earlier using his Semblance, allowing the natural gravity to strike it first as the glaive descended upon it's head sword-first. Right before impact, Qiu'li activated the Air dust that was provided to them, slowing his descent enough to allow him to time grasping the glaive and using the force of his weight to plunge it even deeper as a follow-up attack. Hopefully, this would finish off the Grimm after Colton's preemptive attack combined with his dual-attack. If it didn't, the sudden surprise attack from above and the sheer weight of the impact would have stopped it just briefly enough for one of the vanguards to take advantage of the shock and finish it. "Plan... Next?" Qiu'li called out to the other teammates.

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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

[Wolfe]

Argent would hit the ground first, which would immediately get the attention of the four lesser beowolves right in the drop zone that would start charging at him immediately. While he overshot and had to dig his staff into the building, the beowolves were content to climb and begin swarming him. Claw strikes and lunging bites quickly found their way towards the student, because the beowolves were both faster and more capable of climbing than the archer. Thankfully, the teammates of the Faunus prevented him from having his aura completely ripped to shreds right from the outside. A metal shield came in and momentary stuck itself into the wall of the building as the Grimm was sliced in half just as it was connecting a slash of its claws towards Argent’s back. It was still a hit, but the Grimm’s momentum was gone before it could put its full strength behind the blow.

The second one would be killed mid-lunge by a backsword that went tip-first into its face as it lunged at Argent, and the attack would knock the teenager to the side but do comparatively little damage due to the tackle being halted midway through. The initial sweep of Nikolas’s spear would catch one of the remaining Grimm, but the last would sprint underneath it at the last possible second to continue pursuit of the Faunus. The beowolf that Nikolas held off would then try to leap at the new enemy, but the spearman would simply move backward and abuse his range to give several thrusts from complete safety into the Grimm until it suffered enough damage to disintegrate. At this stage, Argent’s aura meters would be down to 80% of their maximum level and everyone else was more or less at 100%.

The last of those immediately at the landing zone would leap at Argent as he scrabbled up the statue, but Qiu’li’s makeshift spear would pin the creature to the ground mid-way through and would be dispatched by the martial artist soon afterwards by a simple repositioning of the blade once it was still inside of the monster to completely destroy whatever internal organs it had. This caused the Grimm to dissipate, but the unfortunate reality was that everyone being focused to the north in order to protect Argent meant that it was much harder to keep track of what was happening to the west, east, and south because the Grimm were not just standing idly by while all of this was going on.

The larger monsters to the west had been advancing slowly as their numbers increased, and now were a total of four large beowolves along with six of their lesser brethren. They hovered roughly ten meters away from the group of trainees, however, seemingly waiting for something. The lesser hordes to the south and east, however, had no such patience and while the mob to the south stayed as three those in the east had their numbers bolstered by two more.

The three to the south was where Argent prioritized his fire, and he fired off four arrows in quick succession. The first one was a near miss, while the other three embedded themselves in the bodies of each of those Grimm… though the arrows in their backs did absolutely nothing to stop their forward charge. They had each been injured, but not nearly enough to unmake them or even slow them down. If attacks at that level are continued, then it was clear that it would take multiple arrows landing in each target in order to make the kill assured. Two of these injured beowolves would start climbing up the statue as Argent was the farthest south, though the third would continue its charge to Qiu’li who was the closest one on the ground to their initial attack.

The five to the east had their charge unimpeded, and three of them would rush to attempt to swarm Nikolas while the remaining two would break away slightly and attempt to hit Qiu’li from behind while he was distracted with the one in front of him. Once the beowolves from the east and the south had made contact, those from the west would start their hard charge forward. They would reach the trainees only moments after they were set upon by the other groups and would fan out to make their lives much more difficult than they were even a few seconds prior.

Two of the lesser beowolves would move towards climbing the statue, two would move to flank Nikolas while he was distracted with the group to his east, and all four of the larger beowolves would go after Colton all at once. If he was facing them, then they would charge in all as a group but if he was trying to help his teammates they would instead fan out to at least three directions that he wasn’t looking and then leap all at once to put their enhanced strength to good use.

The extreme amounts of negative emotions put forth by some of the trainees did absolutely nothing to placate the Grimm, and indeed likely made their crawling out of the woodworks faster than it otherwise might have been. The building to their north would be resounding with extremely loud noises of debris falling out of view and the sounds of wood snapping from impact semi-regularly. What was much more immediate to the trainees, however, was the snarling of the beowolf pack that they had just pissed off coming from nearly every conceivable direction.

The initial plan had fallen apart nearly from the beginning, so some adaptation was almost required at this point. Any fool could see that if the numbers were not thinned quickly and if the situation stayed as it was, each student would slowly be overwhelmed by the masses of Grimm around them. Professor Shadecloak had previously stated that she fully expected them to be able to survive for five minutes alone, but they were currently less than a minute into this fight and things weren’t exactly looking great on that front.

SPOILER: Click to show

Word Count: 1014

Total Word Count: 1735

Logic behind decisions

Argent’s attempt to make it to the statue before being attacked is a direct competition between his speed (G) and the speed of the beowolves (F) to which there is a one rank difference. This means that the beowolves are 1/3 faster than Argent, and can close the distance easily. He misplaced his landing and mentioned digging his spear into his wall which would have slowed him down. Getting to a graceful landing is checked against his acrobatics skill (G) and so is his climbing attempt of the statue. The beowolves attempting to climb the wall Argent is falling down on is checked against their acrobatics skill (F) as well. This means that the beowolves climb 1/3 faster than Argent and can catch up to threaten him. No attack was written for Argent until he was on top of the statue, which means he was scrabbling across the field and climbing this turn.

The damage/accuracy of the beowolf for both the claw and the tackle (G/G) is pitted up against the durability/agility of Argent (G/G) which makes them completely equal so there was significant leeway given to writing. The initial hit was a partial one, doing roughly 1/3 of the damage of a direct hit in a situation where offense and defense were equal due to the quick response by Colton/Nikolas to prevent further damage. The second one was a similar partial hit, doing another 1/3 of what a direct hit would do due to the momentum being stopped partway in the tackle.

The damage/accuracy of the shield is a measure of the level of skill. Manipulation rank (D) ranks accuracy and damage as a check against the durability/agility of a beowolf (G/G). This represents a three rank difference, which per rules is the level where the difference in skill is so high that it is uncontested. What this means in this case is the damage/accuracy are enough to one shot the beowolf hit by the shield.

The strategy of Nikolas to keep the Grimm at bay was to stall them and physically get in their way if they tried to get past him. This is a contested skill of martial arts/agility because he specifically landed nearby them to remove speed from the equation. Nikolas’s skills (F/F) go against the beowolf’s (G/F) and the push goes in the favor of the student avoiding the attacks this round and playing completely defensive. His accuracy/damage (F/F) from his martial arts/weapon skills are contested against the beowolf’s agility/durability (G/G) which means he does significant damage due to the beowolves first of all being distracted by Argent and second of all because his weapon is being used narratively to exploit its range. Some others may not care about specific applications of weapons, but I do and choose to reward it pretty consistently.

Qiu’li vs. beowolves is a similar deal. Getting there is his speed (F) against the beowolf’s speed (F) and whether he hits or not is his martial arts (F) against the Grimm’s agility (G). Damage is his weapon rank (F) against the Grimm’s durability (G) and the flavor text had him falling down and spearing downward. That’s enough for a pin in my book.

Argent made no mention of using his semblance with his arrows, so the accuracy/damage do not come from his semblance this turn. Accuracy/Damage (F/F from marksmanship/weapon) against the beowolf’s G/G agility/durability. He specifically mentions hitting each of the beowolves in turn, so that is kept. F ranked damage is not enough to oneshot G ranked durability, however, and it’s not close.

[Colton Deraine]

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

Things weren’t exactly looking the best for the students right now. Both of Colton’s weapons rebounded quickly towards him, and between the three who jumped after their idiot archer they managed to make sure he didn’t die. The bad part, though, was that now they were spread out doing so and had all directed their attention in the absolute worst directions as well in order to cover up for another’s mistake. That allowed a growing swarm of Grimm to rush out from every direction where they weren’t focused to come almost unimpeded and going from bad to worse was surely happening in the next several seconds. Qiu’li called out that they needed a plan, which… yeah.

Plan, right. The original one kind of fell to shit right off the bat and nobody else seemed to be stepping up to the plate at the moment. Grimm were coming from the… brown eyes took a second to scan in every direction… east, south, west. It would only be a second or two before the waves from the east and south crashed into them, with the one from the west holding off a bit longer in order to get a clean route in and hope to overwhelm them completely. They were out in the open, which would have been a solid strategy if they all hadn’t been focused inward instead of outward and got time to set up properly… but it was too late for that now because they couldn’t really pre-empt the waves of Grimm coming from almost every direction by getting into any sort of formation or anything. He didn’t want any part of any plan their archer came up with after they had just prevented him from committing suicide, Qiu’li was dumb to begin with, and Nikolas was barely better than a killer robot in terms of ability to plan from every encounter Colton had with the spearman thus far. This meant that preventing them all from getting seriously injured or worse would fall to the former champion this go around, as it usually did.

Really, the best they could do at this point would be to make sure they couldn’t get swarmed from every direction. The building to the north was too far for the archer to run back to, and even if it was close enough the entire thing sounded like it was falling apart right that very second so chances were if they ran into it the building would just collapse on their heads anyway. There was no other structure that they could get to before the beowolves were upon them, except the statue. It wasn’t ideal, but it would give each person something to put their backs to in order to only be attacked from the front and sides rather than from all directions like they were about to be. Someone being surrounded in all four directions was a recipe for disaster, and that needed to be avoided at all costs.

”Fall back to the statue.” the Argus native barked out with an authority he didn’t exactly feel, ”Keep your back to it so the beowolves can’t flank! Nik, I’ll cover! Go!”

A strategy that may have been in most people the result of a true desire to help a fellow human being and to take the brunt of the risk in order to be heroic or whatever was simply a risk calculation when it came to why Colton did it. He was slow, slower than normal with the extra armor on and would have to rely on his semblance to make it over there to begin with – which would make him useless in defending anyone else for a couple of seconds. He would toss his shield in order to take out the first beowolf that would harry Nikolas, but a quick turn back to the west made him immediately regret his decision. ”I’ll buy everyone some time! Get to the base of the statue!” he repeated, voice completely self-assured despite the worrying sight in front of him.

Four of the bigger ones, charging straight at him in particular for some reason… fantastic. The shield would boomerang back within a couple of seconds, but that left him without one of his weapons against his four new best friends. The teenager’s left hand shot downward to touch his scabbard, which he then imbued with polarity to shoot out at the one farthest to his left that was trying to flank. His sword would go point-first in the direction of the one attempting to flank to his right, and he would move forward and to the right to put the one charging from the center right directly in the path of the one charging from center left. He was reasonably sure the one on the far right was going to be dead from the semblance enhanced thrust, but Colton wasn’t as sure about the one on the far left and he needed to buy time for his shield to rebound.

The goal was to duck under the lunge or claw strike while simultaneously moving to the side of the center right beowolf to completely prevent the ones to the left of it from being able to fuck with him for long enough for Omen to come back to take one and for the backsword to finish off the one injured from the scabbard. This left Colton essentially in a one on one with the bigger beowolf when it was all said and done, if he could successfully stall it out the crucial seconds he needed to make this work. If he was clipped by the strike while ducking in, that was completely fine. Assuming he was able to make it to the side of the beowolf even momentarily, Colton would use Polarity at a slightly reduced strength strong enough to smash stone to enhance the metal going down his right leg to give an empowered kick that would hopefully provide some distance between him and his adversaries as well as maybe even knocking them into each other at the cost of suffering the same damage in turn as his opponent due to his leg not being able to deal with the artificial momentum generated and would have ripped his leg out of its socket if he didn’t have enough aura to prevent just that from happening. Thankfully, though, he started this fight with next to full aura so had plenty to spare.

The route both of his weapons would have to take in order to make it back to his hands was through the beowolf he was fighting, so until that happened he would simply do his best to stall. He wasn’t agile enough to really dodge anything, but he had good fight sense and was capable of redirecting attacks and would likely be able to at least partially mitigate any damage that came his way. He wasn’t strong enough to actually fight against the monster, so he would simply have to let it choose which direction to go and ensure that it hit nothing vitally important he just redirected that momentum in another direction to stall for time and to prevent the beowolf from getting its claws on the former champion for any length of time. If he was grappled, then it would be a giant pain in the ass to get out and simply was the absolute worst possible outcome of this face off.

Once that battle was resolved, assuming that no other Grimm came to harry him, Colton would look and either try and assist anyone who hadn’t made it to the statue yet or simply sprint towards an unoccupied direction on its base if he ended being the last one. He would not toss out his weapons a third time in a row so quickly, preferring instead to close in with the enemy and use his hands this go around to prevent himself from being forced to fight unarmed for a second time in this encounter. The metal scabbard would be left wherever it landed earlier, largely because Colton didn’t bother even trying to manipulate his three pieces of metal all going in different directions at different speeds and trajectories while simultaneously engaging in unarmed combat. It heightened the risk of fucking up too much for little tangible benefit, as the scabbard wasn’t designed to be a weapon in the same way that the sword and shield were and thus was not able to do the same damage. It would be out of range very quickly, so he was just left with his shield and sword that he could throw out… and his armor if things got desperate again.

Using Polarity to mimic other skills always came with a severe drawback, usually damage because his body actually couldn’t deal with the extreme force generated by his semblance. The metal would comply, but the fleshy parts of his body would simply be thrashed in the process. It wasn’t ideal, and oftentimes unless he specifically dampened the power of his semblance like in the kick earlier he would essentially wipe out his own aura extremely quickly. That wasn’t an outcome that he wanted, so Colton would simply continue to use those armor manipulations as an act of last resort. As long as he wasn’t caught in a situation where his shield was uselessly far away from him again, the teenager was confident in his ability to prevent that desperate situation from arising a second time in this confrontation. After all, at the end of the day these were all just lesser beowolves who could be taken out by one good application of his semblance – no big deal in the scheme of things once their numbers were thinned out enough to prevent the flanking. While they had the numbers, the fact of the matter was that each and every one of them was a fucking awful quality combatant and the numbers were all they really had. Diluting the power of those numbers by forcing them into predictable attack patterns from predictable directions made this a much easier go than trying to fight a three hundred and sixty degree battle against the whole goddamn neighborhood would have been.

※ 3562 total words ✎ 1700 words ✉ D 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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Colton Deraine Argent Steele Qiu'li

1738 words - SlowMo Visual Reference for some of Nik's moves in this post.

heroes die with honor i'm no hero

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"Heads up!" Nikolas barked when one of the two Grimm he had engaged managed to break past him, but no sooner than it had managed to do so, Qiu'li crashed down on it with a brilliant execution. Some form of satisfaction colored the cold determination and hatred within Nikolas, stemming from the fact that his teammates could hold their own. He focused solely on the Beowulf in front of him, dancing outside its range while fully abusing his own, jabbing quick and precise stabs into the Grimm until it keeled over, dissipating as it hit the ground. [break][break]

Nikolas' eyes flicked around him, absorbing the swarm approaching them from all directions. His face was a stony mask, but his eyes were burning with feral amusement, almost bordering on madness as he was looking forward to this. The feeling of killing that Grimm a few moments before... He had missed that feeling dearly, like the touch of a forgotten lover. He barely heard Qiu'li shout something about a plan. He contemplated responding to it, probably with some version of no plan being needed other than to stay alive, but Colton beat him to the answer. His face turned towards Colton for a moment, going past the man to see what was approaching him. Nikolas' eyes narrowed, bringing his attention back to the more urgent threat, taking a moment to fling his backpack to the statue where they would no doubt be making their stand at, before facing down the three beowulf charging him. Did they roar at him? Hard to tell with the amount of chaos around them, but Nikolas definitely roared back at them with a battle-cry before he lunged towards the three Grimm who were coming at him. [break][break]

His heart was pounding, like wardrums in his ear. Every muscle in his body was in overdrive, in battle mode. Every sense honed to a sharpness so distinct that they would all be numb following the end of the battle. He didn't know about the others, but Nikolas knew how to fight against the Beowulf. They were the kinds of Grimm he had most often engaged, and he had fought bad odds numerous times. The key to it, for his fighting style and weapon, was to not invest in singular powerful attacks, instead engaging in almost a dance of spinning and twirling motions to land low-moderate level slashes at any Grimm who engaged him, both whittling them down as well as punishing any Grimm who tried to attack him through his motions. Only following the momentum would he occasionally insert a coup-de-grace flourish to finish a Grimm off, once it was staggered by a hit. This time would be no different. [break][break]

As he rushed the Grimm, he heard the telltale swooshing sound. Nik kicked off with his foot in to one direction as he approached the Grimm, heading to his left to meet the first Grimm that would reach him, while also forcing the other two to cut around or over the Grimm inbetween him and them now to get to him. But that wasn't the only thing that was between. His new position placed him right between the first Grimm, and Colton's rapidly approaching shield. As soon as he had landed that last step, he bent his upper body low, bringing the spear around his back to his left side as Colton's shield, which would've been hidden from the Grimm's view by Nikolas until this moment, passed over Nikolas, barely an inch or two between the shield and Nikolas' bent form. As the shield flew up, not doubt to smack or slice past the Grimm, Nikolas would take that small opening afforded by that hit. The Grimm would no doubt react to the shield first, either to dodge it instinctively, or stagger from the hit, however minute. And Nikolas would follow the shield's opening, his spear flashing, the blade nothing but a dark blur as he spun it twice at the Grimm, aiming for deep lacerations at the Grimm's neck and eyes. As the blade would pass the Grimm during the second spin, whether the blade itself connected or not, Nikolas' finger would pull the trigger, a nearly point-blank blast of the powerful gun housed within Stahlblesk firing at the Grimm's face. [break][break]

The recoil would kick Stahlblesk's momentum further, allowing Nikolas to spin it once more, this time using the momentum to spin his own body, his feet sliding across the dusty ground, gaining a foot of distance back from his previous position. A quick reposition to throw off the other two Grimm if they had been trying to attack Nikolas while he was attempting to finish off the first one. Stahlblesk's spin came to a stop as Nikolas ended it by entering a stance with the entire polearm held at shoulder level. Only a split second of pause as Nikolas' grey eyes absorbed the scene before him. Time was of the essence, and he could hear the telltale footsteps approaching from behind him, no doubt more Grimm attempting to flank him. He had bought a precious second or two by lunging towards the eastern ones instead of holding his ground, and would have to attempt to finish these two off first. He decided to focus on these before turning to face the flankers as his eyes flicked around, registering where the other two Grimm were, and if the first one had survived, before he kicked back into motion.[break][break]

He brought his spear in a sweeping slash of moderate range, going from left to right, aiming to land a slashing injury on either the Grimm's eyes if they were on all fours, or their thighs if they were reared up. When the motion of the sweep ended, there was another split second pause as his hand kicked the bolt back, the cartridge popping out as another round was chambered, his eyes once again scanning the Grimm for any oncoming hits. He then twisted his hand, bringing Stahlblesk up and around into a vertical spin now as he expertly twirled it between his hands, a flurry of vertical slashes to both lacerate and deflect incoming attacks, bringing Stahlblesk back from his right side to his left while taking a step forward, before ending the last spin with a vicious diagonal sweep, going from top left to bottom right, the pole of Stahlblesk intentionally sliding in his grip as the momentum pulled the blade outwards, once again abusing the range of the polearm to land a much more direct hit than it would've otherwise with the blade. Throughout every motion he did, particularly during the vertical spins, his eyes stayed on the Grimm, making sure that if they tried to strike out with a claw or bite, his blade would be there to punish them for it. All he had to do was not let them get into his range, and he was experienced at doing that with Beowolves.[break][break]

The momentum carried the blade down to his lower right, and he heard the Grimm approaching him from behind. His finger once again pulled the trigger, the shot blasting into the ground like a thundercrack, the recoil completely killing the previous momentum and kicking the spear backwards. He brought the spear back up in another deadly slash, going from bottom right to top left, just in case the eastern Grimm had survived his previous onslaught and tried to jump on him once more. He continued with the inertia of the swing, letting it spin him around to face the two that had been approaching from his blind spot, bringing Stahlblesk down while pushing his body to the side. The combined motion threw his center of gravity off, repositioning himself to his right while his spear cut down from top right to bottom left, his feet sliding over the ground. This kind of motion, Nikolas most often referred to as a Fade Slash, where he would use a wide sweeping attack and simultaneously reposition himself to disengage. In this case, he moved to break off from the two Grimm, who would no doubt have been charging or leaping at him, moving himself out of their original target spot while also attempting to land a hit on one or both with that slash.[break][break]

He hopped back a couple of times, gaining some distance from the Grimm and nearing the statue, keeping the statue to his back, hoping his other teammates would be taking care of the Grimm coming from that location so he wouldn't get hit from the back. Now that he had hopefully bought a few seconds away from any of the surviving Grimm he had been engaged with, he allowed himself to exhale sharply, taking rapid, deep breaths. All those explosively fast motions in such a short time span was definitely very tiring, and Nikolas took these precious few moments to try to catch a measure of breath, entering a defensive stance, ready to counter the Grimm if they charged him with another backstep and spear thrust. His eyes flicked over to Colton's position, and he let out an audible snarl as he saw the man facing off against four big buggers. [break][break]

His lungs burned, his heart was pounding and he could already feel the telltale ache of his muscles, but the adrenaline rushing through him still kept him in battle drive, as Nikolas glanced back at the Grimm he had originally been engaged with. If any of those Grimm were still alive, Nikolas would let them approach him to counter-thrust and hopefully kill the stragglers.
If, or once, he had killed all of them, provided none of them made a dash for Colton, then Nikolas would reposition so he was between Colton and the statue. He would go half the distance between the two before calling out, "Colton! Fall back!" He would bring Stahlblesk up in a ready stance, holding his position in that halfway spot. This way, his rear wouldn't be too exposed, and Colton would only have to retreat half the distance to receive some measure of backup, which would allow both of them to retreat in a safer way. [break][break]

On the off chance that one of the Grimm he had been engaging would rush at Colton once Nikolas had hopped away, Nikolas would take that chance to charge in with an impaling strike on the Grimm's exposed back, before continuing with his previous plan to help Colton retreat.

ulla

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[Argent Steele]

There’s always a king. Always a queen. Always a wolf.
But he who holds the ace, always has the last word.

❝

Things had gone spectacularly less well than he’d expected. The idea had been simple enough - take a vantage point to support the rest of the team while they acted as the focus for the Grimm to crash down on, and pick them off in accordance with Shadecloak’s basic outline of a battle plan. But things had gone awry nearly right off the bat. In erring on the side of caution for landing in the drop zone due to previous lack of experience with - well, dropping into a hot zone from a Bullhead - he’d managed to, for lack of a better way to describe it, screw up the positioning of the entire team. Descending a mere few meters away from where he’d originally planned had drawn the immediate hostile attention of the four Grimm in the drop zone that he gone straight for him. The other three had aborted their positioning to back him up. a fact that he recognized quite well when bruised and battered Grimm scored him with a few glancing blows but none of which hit for too much damage. Without that positioning, the battle plan Shadecloak had drawn up wouldn’t work, and without that…

Argent swallowed back the rising fear that he could have just doomed the entire team to severe injury and death, took a deep breath to calm himself, and squashed his emotions back down into a tiny box in the back of his mind. Grimm were attracted to negative emotion, and thinking too much on it would only draw their attention to him - and as a primarily ranged combatant, with Subtle Calamity’s spear form a last ditch effort that he would only resort to if there were no other options, if he was cornered in there wouldn’t be much he could do to prevent himself from being torn to a bloody pulp. Then the rest wouldn’t have their support, and he would be dead.

His teammates, however, seemed to be handling things far better than he was, and at the risk of sounding callous, Cotton seemed to be angry enough for the whole team and then some. Certainly enough that, from a quick glance from his perch atop the broken statue, a good number of Grimm were closing in on him like a flock of vultures descending onto a fresh kill. But some wasn’t all, and Argent’s attention instantly returned to the two Grimm that had survived his shots and were even now chasing after him, climbing their way up the broken legs with their claws digging into the concrete and offering them purchase. They were close, close enough for him to feel their bloodlust and desire to rip him to shreds.

Close enough that he couldn’t miss.

Four arrows, pulled from his hip quiver with the ease of long practice, and his Aura flared up around him in a bright silver, charging the two nocked to his bow with power enough to shatter stone. Two bright streaks of silver arced forward, slamming into the Beowolves already damaged by the previous volley but continuing to climb their way upwards in spite of that. The snake Faunus didn’t pause to confirm if they were dead from that single attack, instead bringing his hand around to nock the remaining two to his bowstring and fire off two quick shots, one after the other, into what would be either heavily wounded Beowolves or their corpses, making sure they disintegrated before turning his attention away to his companions at the base of the statue.

What was left of the statue was mostly in ruins off to the north, having torn a hole through the brick walls after being ripped from the stand and thrown through it with great force - he could see recognizable pieces from where he stood, but most of it had crumbled a long time ago. The base, nearly ten meters by ten meters, had two tiers, the first of which apparently acted as a bench or communal seating area of some sort, and the second of which was the base of the statue proper - a circular platform about half the size of it’s larger counterpart, on which a part of legs knelt, the lower part of a stone sword still mounted in the stone next to them. While most of anything above the torso was gone, the height of said legs was tall enough that Argent had taken a precious few seconds to mount and his Beowolf pursuers even more so, and both flat and wide enough to serve as a good vantage point from which he could have a view of all the surrounding buildings, which was why he’d prioritized it in the first place.

Hopefully, that would be enough to keep them from getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of the horde that would be coming for them. Argent pulled another three arrows from his quiver, took a moment to analyse the situation. Cotton and Nicholas were fending off the vast majority of the horde to the west, while Jiu Li, to his immediate north, was being swarmed - and, at least to his unfamiliar eyes, in the more immediate danger, without any other support. He didn’t exactly remember what the other’s Semblance was, but he did remember that he had been one of the better students back in class with regards to combat ability. Aura flaring silver once more, Argent focused on the advancing horde from the east that had charged while he’d been dealing with the two climbing towards him, and the singular Beowolf who’d gone past him. Behind Jiu Li, two more of the Grimm came, clearly intent on hitting him while he was preoccupied. Silver streaked through the air in a volley, one arrow for each of the three - it wouldn’t manage to kill the two behind his fellow student, but it would give them pause when it hit, and perhaps that would be enough for the other to capitalize on the opportunity and slash them apart.

“Behind you!” the Faunus yelled out urgently, fumbling with his hip quiver as he grabbed for another bunch of arrows. While clearly intent on helping Jiu Li, his attention was quickly caught by the oncoming two Beowolves that were clearly gunning for him, and he had no choice but to shift his priority to them first. Burning through his Aura at an alarming rate due to using his Semblance so much meant he probably couldn’t take much more than a single direct hit, but he had to make up for the mistake he’d made somehow, and that meant staying alive, in the fight, and using everything he had to keep what he could of the Grimm off the backs of the others. Should those two arrive before he could get off another volley, he would switch Calamity into its’ spear form and do his best to knock them off to buy himself more time, or if that didn't work, at least try to hold them at bay until Jiu Li could come to his aid - otherwise, they would be the priority for another blast of Semblance fueled shots, shots that would hopefully, if not dissipate them into ash, then at least buy him time for Jiu Li to finish up on his end and help him out.

@ ● 1214 words ● 3071 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Qiu'li]

[attr="class","popqiu"] ❝May the crimson leaves show me the path I must follow.❞ wc: 731   | twc: 2031 Qiu'li

[attr="class","qiutext"] It seemed like the group coming from the south and east region were going for a straight charge at Argent and Nikolas. Though as they did, he noticed that one broke off from the three and went straight for him instead! Little shit- As he was prepared to strike and clash with the Grimm, Qiu'li heard the orders bark from Colton's mouth to fall back to the statue in order to avoid being flanked. Urgh, Qiu'li hated to admit it but he was right in that choice. Being able to have one less direction to worry about was ideal and in this situation, there wasn't much of a choice to be choosy about what to do. However, there was the problem of the advancing Grimm. Twirling the glaive and preparing to attack while backstepping to avoid getting hit, Qiu'li stopped as he realized something else. There were two more Grimm that were flanking in his direction, namely from behind. Oh shit. Qiu'li could handle one, MAYBE two opponents, but three? Definitely not for him. As he tried to figure out how to best get out of this three-way pincer attack, a second shout from behind him caught his attention. It was Argent, in which he heard a distinct whistling noise indicating two arrows were shot from behind. Presumably at the flanking Grimm that were going straight at him. During this time, Qiu'li decided to run towards the incoming Grimm instead of waiting for it. It would throw off the Grimm's timing for a bit and allow him to perform his preemptive attack. Taking a firm step, Qiu'li planted the bladed end of the glaive into the ground and launched himself upward, allowing Qiu'li to get above the Grimm and use it's head as a platform to kick off. Lowering his body, Qiu'li sprung off the Grimm's head with a full force kick and dragged the glaive upward with him to slice the front Grimm, causing Qiu'li to perform an upward slash at it's torso/shoulder region as he sailed backwards and over the two behind him. Once he was directly above the other two, Qiu'li spun his body and re-positioned it so that he was perpendicular to them before attempting to perform a spinning slash over the back of their necks and landing on the ground to roll towards the fountain. The slash should have knocked the two close enough together for a second follow-up slash to cut both of them down before Qiu'li retreated to the fountain. If the ones that were approaching Argent weren't dead, Qiu'li would finish them off with a charged thrust-slash as he panted slightly from the acrobatics. Though the battle was far from over. In their scramble for safety, the west side had accumulated a large number of enemies, with a total of ten Grimm with 4 being larger and 6 being smaller. Though as soon as he noticed them were they already charging straight at them! Qiu'li turned to the others and shouted out to them to alert of the incoming horde. 10 from West..! 4 Large and 6 Small!!" The raven-haired man prepared himself. They would be quickly overrun if they didn't do anything soon, urgh... Looks like he'll have to resort to this. Raising the glaive a bit, Qiu'li ran the blade against his arm to hurt his Aura a bit. As soon as he did, the skin began to turn a dark purple and his veins began to pulsate as a crimson red aura began to surround him and his weapon. They were well within range of Fennu, as Qiu'li took a wide stance and began making several horizontal slashes, sending out waves of concentrated energy beams from Longtou, the ringed broadsword as they went straight for the incoming Grimm. He watched the sword beams fly straight at the Grimm. If they tried to jump upwards or use a building as a platform, Qiu'li would adjust trajectory to prevent them from getting an aerial advantage. If they tried to spread out, Qiu'li would aim at the ones who were mostly spread out to prevent themselves from flanking the group and allowing the two main tanks to take on the main force. His priority was to prevent the Grimm from getting the jump on them, though the main concern was whether another Alpha would appear during this commotion. Perhaps it wasn't the sensation of 'if' it would show up, but rather the 'when'. Either way he'd assist with Argent with ranged combat until they got close enough for Qiu'li to strike them with his increased strength.

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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

[Wolfe]

Colton’s Polarity infused attacks would both find their marks rather easily, with the metal blade and scabbard flying at incredible speeds and finding purchase in the flesh of the Grimm. The one farthest to his right would have the point of the backsword sink deeply into its skull and collapse near-instantly, while the one on the left would get pierced through both sides of its chest and move on for about five more seconds before collapsing. This meant, however, that with the shield taking a few moments to boomerang back that the trainee was unarmed and without any metal that he could immediately lose without burning into his own aura.

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank semblance (Accuracy/Damage for manipulator) vs. G rank Durability/Agility. 3 ranks above so we got some oneshots.

The diagonal move to get under the beowolf’s attack was successful. A monster had to obey the same laws of motion that a human did in a swing, so Colton’s years of combat training had paid dividends in that moment. After successfully getting under the monster’s guard, the trainee fired off a Polarity-enhanced kick that threw his opponent into his other opponent while creating some much needed distance. Colton’s aura level was down to 60 percent at this point due to the rough use of his semblance dealing the same damage to his own body that he gave out to the beowolf. His enhanced durability would make it non-crippling, but repeated uses of Polarity like that would prove to be very crippling very quickly.

SPOILER: Click to show

Dodge was G rank Agility from Colton vs. G rank martial arts from the Beowolf. Flavored it based off of Colton’s martial arts ability but I literally just flipped a coin in the bot channel to see if it would be successful or not. Heads is good, tails is bad. It landed heads. Kick was Martial Arts (E) against the Beowolf’s Agility (G) and Strength (E with Polarity enhancement due to ‘break stone’ language in post) vs. the Beowolf’s Durability (G). Damage to Colton is the same rank as the Beowolf, E rank, but Colton’s durability is also E rank so the damage he takes is much less than the Beowolf.

The strength of the blow was enough, along with Colton backing up and buying those crucial fractions of a second to knock the two surviving Grimm away for just long enough for the three metal instruments to collide at once to cut them both to shreds at once. The scabbard went through the one in the back’s side, the shield cut the injured one in half, and the sword had pierced clean through the formerly healthy one’s leg and embedded its tip an inch or two into the ground besides. Pulling all of the metal objects back to himself would reduce the trainee’s aura levels to roughly 58 percent.

SPOILER: Click to show

Colton has F rank stamina, so is fine on the energy front for a little while longer since the base is 4 posts + 1 post for every rank of stamina. His aura drain from using his semblance is less due to this rank in stamina, though not significantly so.

For Nikolas, things were not so controlled. The metal shield would burst forth and cut one of the beowolves in two but taking out one wasn’t as helpful as it might’ve been otherwise due to the sheer number of the creatures that he was forced to deal with. The Creatures of Grimm felt no pain, felt no fear, and had zero sense of self-preservation. They did not have a nervous system like normal living organisms did, and seemed to be completely made of some foreign and evil substance. The primary downside to this, then, was that traditional methods of martial arts were much less effective. Embedding a blade in one arm did nothing when the Grimm would simply lunge forward anyway and ride that momentum through to attack at the cost of their own arm. Nikolas was trained in melee combat, sure, but any thoughts about helping others were simply out of the equation at this point.

Four beowolves from four different directions made it an impossible situation to dodge, and heavy blows were made on both sides. He was given no room to breathe, and no room to do anything except fight for his life. Due to being forced to rapidly change target and position constantly, he was unable to focus on any particular Grimm for long enough to actually kill it. The northwest one had one front arm but had gotten a nasty hit in return with its other one. The northeast one had a bullet embedded in its head as well as a slash to its throat but still soldiered on. The southwest one had deep gashes along both of its legs that slowed it down significantly, but wasn’t out of the fight yet. The southeast one was the least damaged, with only minor to moderate wounds along both of its front legs. Despite his best efforts, he was not able to break the encirclement just yet as the stubborn monsters held their ground. And despite his best efforts, Nikolas had suffered multiple partial and glancing blows from claws, teeth, and tackles that brought his aura down to roughly 45 percent.

SPOILER: Click to show

F rank martial arts/F rank agility/F rank weapon from Nikolas versus F rank speed/F rank acrobatics from the Beowolves. It takes 3 hits to kill a Beowolf with G rank durability, and the Beowolf would have a harder time hitting F rank agility with its G rank martial arts – but the gap is not significant enough to escape damage entirely especially when faced with so many. Small beowolves hit with G rank strength against G rank durability, for roughly 33% a pop. Nik got hit with the equivalent of two direct hits throughout the course of his last post, but inflicted the equivalent of 2 F ranked attacks in turn on 3 of the 4 beowolves and one on the fourth.

Argent was also not having a good time. His aura was already at 80 percent when we first see him, and the Faunus was being harried by two moderately injured beowolves first, and two more very soon after that would do their utmost to climb up the statue and pull the trainee back down to earth. The first two that made it to the statue first already had arrows embedded in their bodies, and their snarling filled the air as they attempted to climb up the statue. Due to their complete lack of care while doing so, chunks of the already broken statue flew with every foothold that they managed to carve out for themselves on the way up.

Will of the Wyrm was enough to ensure that Argent didn’t miss, and two arrows in each of the beowolves caused them to disintegrate from the immense damage suffered moments after the second arrow found its mark. Choosing to help Qiu’li rather than immediately deal with the very fast beowolves charging at the statue delayed his ability to protect himself, but it did make things significantly easier for Qiu’li moving forward. All three arrows found purchase in the flesh of the monsters so deeply that it was only a few inches along with the feathers on the shaft that stuck out of their bodies, though none of them were downed or even acknowledged the damage that they had suffered.

SPOILER: Click to show

Argent using his semblance is E marksmanship/E damage due to using his manipulator semblance, going up against G/G durability and agility.

Swapping Subtle Calamity into its spear form and desperately stabbing downward scored him one uncontested hit on the two at the base of the statue, though the Grimm were climbing very quickly and the second stab downward at the other was met with a meaty paw that grabbed the boy’s leg. At this point both of the beowolves had been stabbed once, but one of them had a paw on the trainee and a grip strong enough to yank him off the statue completely to throw him unceremoniously to the ground with a loud thud.

The good news was that Argent was thrown on the opposite side as the small group of beowolves that Qiu’li was fighting. The further good news was that the beowolf had thrown Argent out of its own melee range for the moment. The bad news was that the impact with the ground along with previous semblance use would lower Argent’s aura levels to 43 percent. The worse news was that both beowolves were climbing down and would be upon him again momentarily.

SPOILER: Click to show

Grimm getting there quickly and climbing quickly was due to F-ranked speed and acrobatics. It’s their one strength, y’all. Grapple attempt is the G-ranked Martial Arts from the Beowolf against the G-Ranked strength or agility from Argent. There are probably other skills that may have helped, but Argent doesn’t have any of them currently. This was resolved similarly to the last instance with a coin flip, but this time the coin hit tails so it was successful.

Qiu’li was dealing with three beowolves at this point, and had chosen to activate his semblance by putting a blade to his own aura to activate it. This required two slices, which immediately brought his aura down to 45 percent in exchange for activating his transformation semblance. Once Fènnù activated, the former hermit would find the attacks of the lesser beowolf trivial to dodge and their movements much slower and clunkier than his own. His combination of agility, acrobatic skill, and speed made him nearly impossible to hit for the monsters and he was able to fire off his sword beams uncontested. Just because the Beowolves couldn’t seem to hit the teenager didn’t mean that he wasn’t forced to make use of his skills, however, and he would only be able to down two of his three aggressors by the time that Argent hit the ground on the complete opposite side of the statue. His sword beams were strong, but the Grimm weren’t made of tissue paper.

From an undamaged state, it would take three of those beams connecting as direct hits in order to fell one of them, and while he was able to do it fairly easily the process still took time. Time that he didn’t necessarily have to focus on just that particular task. Argent had given his classmate a head start in that regard, but Qiu’li could only swing his sword so fast while simultaneously dodging everything coming his way. He'd only be one or two slashes away from finishing the last one if he stayed put after Argent's plunge, but that would delay his ability to respond by a crucial second or two. Was it worth it? If he went to Argent's side immediately, he could get there before the Grimm climbing down from the statue. He knew that full well, but if he paused to make that finishing move it wasn't certain. Doing it mid-leap would cause the distance between the beowolf and Qiu’li to grow enough that a direct hit wasn’t a certainty, and there was no guarantee that the beowolf wouldn’t refocus and attack someone else rather than simply follow the former barbarian around the statue. One extra beowolf wouldn’t be enough to impact anyone else’s battle, right?

SPOILER: Click to show

Since there is a huge damage difference out of the options of activating Qiu’li’s transformation out of 2 F rank attacks (~66) or 1 E-rank attack (~44) against F rank durability I went in the middle with 55. I am aware that Qiu’li’s weapon is only F rank but decided that his E-rank martial arts skill and the fact he’s doing it to himself allow him to make the 2 requisite F-rank attacks for a value in the middle. On semblance upgrade better language would probably be just making it activate when his aura hits half, for the record. Would make interaction more consistent and predictable. Qiu’li’s acrobatics, speed, and agility are all E rank while in transformation, which gives him an advantage in every area that the beowolf is strong and then some. His marksmanship, though, is G rank so that means he’ll have some issues dealing with the beowolves that aren’t immediately next to him.

SPOILER: Click to show

1488 words, 3223 total words from this account.

[Theloria Shadecloak]

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Instructor Shadecloak[attr=class,punkihover1]

1373 words, 3808 total words

The crashing from the northern building continued steadily, with the occasional howls of beowolves falling and the abrupt cessation of that particular noise as they were crushed by both the landing from a long fall and the stone debris falling on them after the landing. The fight had finally moved from the interior of the shattered building to the shattered rooftops, however, largely due to a missed leap from an alpha that tore through the stone roof. It let loose a guttural growl as it recovered from the disorienting trip to the roof and took a look around, particularly downwards and to the south at the much more vulnerable group of students in that direction. Two arrows were already firmly implanted in the Alpha’s body, both roughly two feet deep into its flesh. The first one embedded in between its neck and shoulder, and the second was protruding from its chest. If it was to stand up without the slouch, the alpha would be approximately thirteen feet tall. The reach of such a monster was well above almost any melee weapon due to their enormous arms, but what really made them a threat was the immense amount of muscle mass that each Alpha carried due to their mutations that enhanced every single part of its anatomy compared to its lesser cousins.

The ones in the arms were strong enough to turn the rank and file Atlesian Droids into scrap metal. Videos of them grabbing those bots and ripping their arms and legs off in a rage were not uncommon, and the much enhanced bone armor that was on those powerful limbs was very much equivalent to a suit of metal armor that a human might wear in terms of durability. Long arms and legs made their speed something terrifying, equivalent to a zebra going full charge and those powerful legs were strong enough to send them vaulting almost twenty meters in an attack that made full use of the immense strength of their jaws and the sharpness of their claws. A leap connecting on most of the trainees would have their aura break immediately, even if it was completely full to begin with. There were videos online of the impact of one of those leaps ripping to shreds walls both wooden and stone, with villagers hiding behind those very same walls being torn to shreds in an instant. There was a reason why the ideal for and civilian was to have a trained huntsman nearby to deal with one, and preferably even two so the greater pack could be dealt with at the same time as well. Trainees engaged with them too, of course, but only as full teams and never alone if they were first years. A mission like this one would be given to a skilled second year team or a typical third year team, and certainly not a ragtag bunch of rookies that had their ability to cooperate at all as a big question mark. Desperate times called for desperate measures, though, much as everyone involved hated that fact.

The Grimm stalked a few feet forward and crouched down, shifting its weight in order to leap forward and downward towards new and easier prey. There was one beacon of hate and one of anger right below it, which were bound to attract its attention much more than anything else. The more negative emotions one exuded, the more they drew the attention of nearby Grimm. With two of the students, though, they might as well be lighthouses for the amount of emotion they were putting out. Unfortunately for the Alpha, though, that lighthouse was a distraction from its true threat and the silent leap of the lion Faunus would put her on the rooftop just moments ahead of the second Alpha with enough time to let loose an uncontested arrow. One hundred and seventy pounds of draw strength led to one hell of an impact when it connected, especially to a vital area. That particular Alpha was already pretty beaten up with two previous arrows embedded into its body, but the third one pierced its neck and caused it to dissipate right where it stood after being knocked over the west side of the building from the impact of the attack.

Another leap to where the Alpha was made her dodge almost completely the leaping attack of the second Alpha as it made its way to the roof as well. The woman already had two arrows in her shooting hand, which wasn’t enough to take out the big one by itself. Shade didn’t exactly have time to pull out another arrow right then due to the second leap from the undamaged second Alpha as four lesser beowolves slowly crawled to the rooftops themselves. The section to where the new threats emerged was to the direct north of the statue, and to the west there was a large opening roughly eight meters long where the body of the first Alpha fell that separated two rooftops. It was this drop that the Faunus chose to jump over in order to avoid the second leap of the beowolf, and during that jump she nocked and fired an arrow that was aimed at the chest of the Alpha in order to get at least some damage down. Each leap of the Alpha came with it an authoritative thud and the cracking of the stone underneath the monster as the building fell apart just that little bit more than before. The rooftop shivered every time the Alpha would do it, and eventually the whole thing was just going to collapse just like the internal levels of the same building did.

Shade would run to the northwest with blazing speed immediately after landing, quickly going out of the line of sight of any of the students with the Alpha following her at a full sprint after making the same leap, but the four lesser beowolves would be so far behind that their attention would be redirected by the same beacons of hate and anger that the first Alpha had been distracted by. Climbing down the walls of the building wasn’t a problem at all for them, though it would take them a bit of time in order to close enough distance to be a threat to the students. They were the smaller type of the normal beowolf, possessing speed and acrobatic ability but lacking the brute force strength of their larger cousins. The vertical climb downward would delay them, but they would sprint towards the closest of either Nikolas or Colton as a group as soon as they hit the ground. Those were the two who had their negative emotions flooding through them the most and pulling the Grimm there faster to begin with, and so they would be the first targets for most of the late arrivals as well to the melee.

This new threat to the north would provide a fine distraction, but the real problem area was the south. A third Alpha was indeed in the area and was currently climbing up and over the wall of the building to the south of the students alongside two of the larger but normal beowolves. The approach of the group of the south was much slower and much more controlled, stalking rather than charging. They would move southwest of the students and move until they were able to hover roughly twenty meters away from the statue in that direction. At that point, in no particular hurry, the Alpha would crouch down and start to adjust its weight in preparation for the jump.

Most of the students who went on this mission considered themselves to be pretty good fighters, and some even considered themselves to be in the elite tier as far as the student body was concerned. They would be able to prove the validity of their lofty opinions of themselves and establish that opinion as fact very quickly, if they were able to hold out for long enough to establish anything other than some hurried last words. Or maybe it would better suit them to simply stall and abandon all pride or hope of winning alone in the interest of maximizing their chances of survival.

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[Colton Deraine]

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

Neat. His desperation play with the four lesser beowolves had paid off, and he was all by himself for the moment in that town square of chaos. Brown eyes glanced around the field in that brief period of respite, and things were not looking the best. Four smaller beowolves were swarming out from the northern building down and climbing down towards the ground, and to the south an Alpha along with two large beowolves were stalking along no doubt waiting for a prime opportunity to strike. Nikolas was still surrounded by four, but they all seemed to be pretty injured. Their archer was out of sight but there were beowolves climbing down the statue aggressively down towards the other side and Qiu’li was making short work of his group of Grimm. If Argent was still breathing, the spear-wielding moron was his last hope at survival. A terrifying thought, really, but at least he had someone nearby enough to help.

Qiu’li was using his transformation, which meant that his aura was in the shitter. Nikolas was getting rocked by four beowolves at the moment, and Argent was completely out of view so was probably not doing so hot either. A leap from the Alpha would break the auras of anybody that it hit, and the next nearly guaranteed attack once the student was pinned against the ground would end their life. If it hit one of the others while they were distracted… well, that would be pretty bad. Fortunately for them, Colton had already won his fight and could move to intercept the Alpha. Unfortunately for them, the former champion was not good enough to actually win a fight with the Alpha one he intercepted it. He was confident that he could not die for a little while, but that was really as much confidence as he had in himself. It was more than most others could do, but it still wasn’t nearly enough by itself.

”Nikolas, turn on your semblance. You’re going to hold down the fort here while we take care of the Alpha.” he barked out. ”Try to get close enough so our archer can help you out.” There was no need to also inform him that their archer was completely out of commission, because doubt was something that wasn’t conducive to survival at this point. Argent would either be up to help his classmate out or not, that was outside of Colton’s control and it gave Nikolas a goal other than to be slowly overwhelmed by the massive number of Grimm in the area. If he could hold them off even for a little while, he would help out the rest of the group immensely. Either holding them there for Argent to pepper in some arrows or just keeping them all corralled while they all dealt with the Alpha were both perfectly fine decisions, and the Argus native really didn’t care which ended up being the play. Both tasks needed to be done, and the order of those tasks wasn’t really his concern because he could only influence one of them.

His aura was a little bit over half, which was enough to at least buy a good chunk of time and wound the damned thing as long as he was smart about it. He wasn’t fast, but a sprint was a sprint and the Alpha was positioned in such a way that as long as Qiu’li moved anywhere in the direction of Argent that Colton would be the closest and most visible target by far. Shade had told them how to avoid the leap, but the issue with that is the Alpha was fast as hell and had two buddies along for the ride that required at least some attention. Simply ignoring the threat of the lesser beowolves was a great way to die, frankly, though using anything except his semblance would take far too much time. That meant that he had much less offensive power to lay into the Alpha with… which meant that he needed some help.

”I’ll get its attention, the rest of you just deal with the ones already here and be ready to help when I lure it close.” he commanded, and with that the former champion was off to the races. He wasn’t very fast, sure, but the Alpha seemed to be in no hurry to engage at all so it’s not like he didn’t have the time required to reposition. The stronger a Grimm one, the more intelligent it ended up being as a general rule. Something like an Alpha had the capacity to think and make decisions at some level, and weren’t just mindless creatures like their lesser brethren seemed to be. It knew it didn’t need to rush, and probably was even smart enough to realize how beat up they all were at this point. That was bad, frankly, and did not bode well for their ability to stall for very long if the thing just kept jumping and clawing at each of them in turn to quickly and decisively shatter all of their auras in turn before moving in for the killing blow.

The ironic part was as he sprinted over to close that distance, he was at the most calm that he was the entire mission up to that point. He didn’t have the luxury to be angry or to be distracted in the slightest anymore by anything, because one misstep and he was finished. The beast was obviously preparing to jump, so Colton just charged at it until it did. When it finally did, the backsword held in reverse grip would be thrown like a spear while the edge and tip lit up red with the activation of the fire dust inside in the direction of the Alpha’s chest at full speed and force. If it hit, the force should be enough to embed itself in the body of the Alpha and continue to burn for a while. It wouldn’t be enough to actually kill it, but it would be enough to wound it and piss it off. The dust enhancement would last for a while and continue searing the flesh of the monster for quite a while, but even if it stayed in until all the fire dust ran it… it still wouldn’t be enough to actually down the beast and it wasn’t even close. Someone else would have to do the rest of the work in killing it, though, because that was really all Colton had. He could toss bits of his armor, sure, but it’s not like it would really do anything when the armor and hide of the monster was so damned thick and durable. The sword toss with the dust activation was Colton’s best shot, though, and with any luck the others would be able to throw at least something at the fucker soon.

As for slipping through underneath the leap, that part was easy to do once… and got progressively harder each successive time due to the amount of aura that it required. Because Colton wasn’t actually fast and needed to use his semblance to artificially make him mobile, these situations always came with some risk. The human body wasn’t designed to be thrown around at these speeds and certainly wasn’t designed to be yanked around with enough force to shatter bricks, but here he was anyway. Instead of tossing the shield out, as soon as the sword toss was complete the shield would be manipulated to go underneath Colton’s feet as a makeshift device for flight with the metal in the trainee’s legs being magnetically attached to the shield to keep Colton on the actual shield while it was going at high speeds – probably even faster than the beowolf’s leap itself… just in the opposite direction and much lower to the ground. Despite crouching, there was only so much control and concentration that Colton could muster in such a situation and would try and fail to do a clean landing off of the shield as it careened into one of the two beowolves that accompanied the Alpha but were too slow to keep up while his scabbard would do its best to impale the other. He wasn’t skilled enough to mitigate the landing at all and would suffer the full brunt of that harsh impact with the ground that would disorient him as he desperately tried to stop and get a look at what the Alpha was doing. Dust was kicked up from the fall and a couple of stray pieces of debris would have been knocked aside or broken during the fucked up landing, but it would be hard to miss the enormous form of the Alpha even amidst that visual impairment.

What would happen next would depend on where the Alpha went from there. If it charged back at Colton immediately, he would use his gravity dust in a desperation play and completely abandon both his scabbard and his shield as he would shoot both forward and to the right in order to get just a bit closer to the other trainees in the process. His aura should be down to roughly a quarter, which was enough to yank the metal on his body enough to simulate flight… or at least some gliding at the cost of most of that aura. His goal would be to make it to the opposite side of the statue that Qiu’li and Argent were on to try and use that as cover and hopefully swap out with someone else, because Colton would be out of any offensive ability at all at that point. His aura would be in the single digits with one very pissed off Beowolf on his tail. He would have enough for one more use of Polarity, but he’d be pretty damned useless after that due to the fact that the exhaustion after your aura broke was made much worse the more the damage sustained exceeded the last dredges of aura remaining. A powerful attack on that low of an aura remaining would mean that the spillover wouldn’t hurt him physically due to the aura protecting against the attack, but forcing it to work that hard past its limits would make him slower than he already was and unable to make any quick movements to dodge or attack afterwards. He would be a sitting duck, in other words. Not the best situation to find himself in, all things considered.

If the Alpha did literally anything else, Colton would pull his shield and scabbard back and sprint over to try and get its attention again. With the shield, the dodging of the second leap was way easier than without it and Colton would simply use it as a horizontal springboard before using the gravity dust to amplify the distance as a way to take less damage than the last time. If he was unsuccessful at getting the attention of the Alpha at all after the first leap, then he would instead toss his shield and scabbard once he got into range in an attack while it was busy trying to maul someone else.

※ 5418 total words ✎ 1856 words ✉ D 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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[attr="class","fromyou1"]
Colton Deraine Argent Steele Qiu'li

1436 words - Yee boi Stormking has his Thunder.

heroes die with honor i'm no hero

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Combat was hectic and chaotic. Nikolas was used to dealing with Grimm surrounding him on all sides, and that was perhaps the only reason why he wasn't already diced to pieces. His hyper aggressive offense had dealt good damage to the Grimm while also keeping any killing blows from connecting, but in his bloodlust, he barely registered the hits he did take. A claw connecting here, a backhanded swipe there, a missed biting lunge turning into a bare tackle, a headbutt barely hitting the corner. Though he didn't take any direct hits, the glancing blows still built up, his aura cracking and reforming with about as much speed as his attack as he went through his motions. By the time he had attempted to retreat to gain some distance, he was forced to forego that option when he saw his opponents were not down, only injured, narrowly escaping another blow that would've ended him had he continued his retreat. [break][break]

A low snarl escaped him in anger as he changed tactics. His reckless offense had done its primary part, which was to whittle down the Grimm, making them slightly less effective than usual with the wounds to their arms or legs. Now he went into a full counteroffensive stance, constantly swirling and spinning his polearm around along with his own posture, trying to face every threat around him. His new stance would focus solely on dodge or deflection, followed by a quick counter attack. He constantly moved both himself and his spear, trying to deflect and dodge attacks from four directions at once, and every time the one he faced attempted to attack him, he would move with a fluid riposte that was thoroughly practiced against this kind of Grimm. A claw swipe would be dodged or deflected by the rear end of Stahlblesk, before being countered by a sudden slash or thrust by the blade. A lunge or tackle would be side stepped, a spinning slash coming around to strike the foe as it would pass. There wasn't enough room for them to leap, but if one tried, Nikolas would attempt to duck down and under it, slashing vertically up with his weapon to both land a critical hit and keep the body from landing on him, leveraging it up and over himself with the motion of the spear. [break][break]

He would continue this deadly dance of dodge and counter until all four of the Grimm died, which wouldn't take long given how injured they were, and how aggressive they were. Once again, he began to abuse his range as much as possible, the rapid movement of the polearm proving a powerful deflection tool against any errant hit that might come from the sides or behind, his own movements ensuring none of the Grimm were in his blindspot for more than the span of a quick breath. Ofcourse, even with the fully defensive approach Nikolas was utilizing now, there would still be a glancing blow here and there he wouldn't be able to catch with four different targets. But he would only need to kill one of them for his chances to go up by a rapid amount, increasing further with each one of the four slain. Thus, he focused on attempting a riposte kill on the southwest one first, as that one was the most burdened with debilitating injuries.[break][break]

Only once the four he was facing was slain would Nikolas take a moment to breathe. His throat and lungs burned, sweat dripping down almost every inch of his skin, face showing signs of exhaustion. But he still had more to give, and he stood straight against the oncoming threat. He heard Colton shout out his order, and Nikolas didn't argue, too caught up in his battle for survival as well as his morbid jubilation at killing the Grimm to butt heads at the moment. He simply focused on the four Grimm that were currently climbing down the North side. [break]
"I'll hold the North. Focus on killing the big fuckers. Don't get close." He snarled back at his team, not even deigning to look behind himself. His heart pounded, adrenaline and exhilaration flooding his physical veins while hatred and bloodlust colored his mental ones. His aura had taken a heavy battering, but Nikolas always preferred to fight with reckless abandon. Injuries were not an unknown factor to him, and the closer to defeat he was, the harder he fought. He hoped his teammates would take his advice of not getting to close, as Colton had told him to release his semblance, and Nikolas' fighting style was very wide. As soon as the first of the northern Grimm would reach the ground, Nikolas would let out another wet snarl, almost animalistic in the primal rage and hatred contained within the sound. He charged, his aching muscles steeling with adrenaline and resolve, the pain of fatigue ignored for the time being as his eyes began to glow a vivid white. His aura began to glow as well, covering him with a dim white glow like a second skin, as the pressure around him took a sudden nosedive. His other hand, meanwhile, clutched the small vial of dust that he had withdrawn, the dust within activating at the same time his semblance did.[break][break]

Within the few moments it took him to approach that Grimm, his semblance burst forth, a miniature tornado coming into explosive being. The dust and debris of the ground around him picked up in the wind, creating a funnel of dark brown and grey, but that wasn't all. Something glittered within the maelstrom of wind, before it glowed bright, turning into arcs of lightning. One of the two Lightning Dust Vials had been used, and it was currently imbuing Nikolas' semblance with its power, lightning and electricity flashing within the confines of the wind storm. Nikolas slid the last few feet, planting his feet and bringing his spear forward, aiming to score a powerful hit against the first Grimm, angling his spear so it would thrust right into the Grimm's chest, and if that connected, he would follow with a vicious upward slice to bring out the spear before using the momentum to spin around and aim a decapitating hit. A three-point deathblow should the first hit connect. Whether he managed to land all three hits on that first Grimm or not, he would backstep away, not allowing the Grimm to once again surround him. The attack had occurred at the limits of his speed, keeping at maximum range that his weapon would allow as he executed it, so if the Grimm who had still been climbing decided to leap at him, the backstep would make them miss. Never the less, he raised his spear during the backstep, just in case one of the Grimm would land on him, aiming to spear it mid-leap and fling it aside.[break][break]

The storm raged around him, causing exhaustion, deafness and, with the addition of the lightning dust, damage to all the Grimm who would be caught within the circular range. He had the advantage right now, and he would fully utilize it. These Grimm looked smaller, and Nik could figure they'd probably be faster or sneakier. However, since they were smaller, their reach was also smaller, allowing Nikolas to further abuse his weapon's length. He kept them at bay, aiming to keep them within the storm as much as he could, slashing out, twirling and spinning or thrusting if any of the Grimm tried to close the distance, while simultaneously moving around, the momentum of his somewhat weighted weapon in sync with the inertia of his body. He was trying to keep all of the Grimm within a 70 degree arc in front of him, trying his best not to let any of them get into his flanks, and he doubted they would be smart enough to spread out around him. They had basic pack mentality, sure, but he hoped otherwise. The waves of hatred and bloodlust pouring of of him hopefully would ensure that they stayed glued to him as a target, and he hoped that would be enough to drive them into a frenzy so they would forego any pack mentality tactics and simply come at him with reckless abandon. His movements however, were marginally slower, his techniques slightly less refined, a difference only a trained eye would spot. He was slowing down, not enough to be an issue right now, but it was definitely coming. He was at his limits. Despite that, Nikolas only bared his teeth in a feral grin as he engaged the Smaller Beowolves.[break][break]

ulla

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