[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Everything happened very quickly. Thankfully, Kishka was thinking quickly enough to keep up and anticipate some of it. She hadn't ranked as one of the top students in Sanctum's Tactics classes for nothing, after all. As she alerted her teammates of the impending ambush, a loud whistle sounded off, and she turned to face it, swinging out her umbrella to meet the arrow in midair. Unfortunately, she didn't manage to completely deflect it, but she did offset the attack and slow it down enough that the damage it did was lessened a bit. Still stung like a bitch, though, as the projectile smacked into her torso. Her aura dropped to about 85% from the shot, which was definitely not good, if this fight was to keep up. She could fight at range, but melee was much more her style. Immediately, she opened her umbrella with a flick of the button, revealing the strong chainmail mesh hidden inside the weapon, as she moved back to back with Colton, who was doing his best at shielding her from the other two attackers. A thundering boom as the second tree fell, closing them in, and several loud drum beats pointed out exactly where Carmim was. Those hits would have very likely taken her out immediately, had Deraine not taken them for her. She retracted her umbrella a bit, and cracked off two shots of cannon fire at the redhead's position, before turning her attention (and her shield) back to Evangeline. And it was a good thing too, because a few more shots were launched her way, fortunately embedding themselves in the lightly armored mesh of her weapon. And she had just had the damn thing repaired... It was a good thing, though. She knew exactly how she could deal with the archer now, though the range would be an issue. She grimaced as the last of the five-bolt volley managed to tag her arm, even through the chainmail. That was another 5% of aura down or so. It was a good, if predictable, strategy. Honestly, with the teams set up the way they were, it was not a surprise at all that they had chosen to attack this way. Three angles of attack, while walling them in, meant they were shooting fish in a barrel. She probably wouldn't have done anything different. Unless they had some way of getting into close-range, they were as good as done for. And then... "Throw me! THROW ME!" She looked to the side to see Aegle, who she had previously counted as a bit of a non-entity in this fight. She wasn't too impressed by the girl in their perimeter defense job, but one thing she did know was that the kid didn't normally have this kind of moxie about her. What the hell was she planning? She didn't know, but she liked where it was going. She grinned. They might just have a shot at this after all. "Knock her little red socks off, kid." She had to wonder exactly what metal it was that the little gremlin was getting launched with- Colton wasn't exactly as diverse as her, or her Argent, after all. "Kishka, you're next..." She nodded, expecting this- it was unorthodox, but a damn good use of the Tin Man's semblance. And he arguably outclassed her in melee combat, so she knew his aura wouldn't be much of a concern once everything was set in motion. She held out her umbrella in Evangeline's direction, still open. It was strongly-built, so she would have no trouble holding on while it flew. "Just don't throw me into a tree, Magneto." Her grip tightened as the weapon lunged forward, flying quickly at the little blondie. She smirked to herself- she was a target suspended in midair, but she wasn't going down that easy. As she flew, she cracked off a few cannonballs at the archer, in an attempt to distract her, as she used her free hand to touch one of the arrows embedded in her umbrella. With a pinch of her aura, the bolts were easily used against Evangeline, as one-by-one, she launched them back at high speeds with her semblance. It took more out of her than moving things slowly, but it wasn't impossible, by any means. Hopefully all the ranged attacks would keep the girl busy, because as she landed, she would close her umbrella and attempt to bring it down against Eva's shoulders in a momentum-fueled strike. She figured she would be close enough to melee range for the girl's crossbow accuracy to suffer, but if Eva dodged back into a more comfortable range, she could easily open her umbrella again, for a little defense, though it definitely wasn't impenetrable. Hopefully, though, she could win this one before she, or her umbrella, became pincushions.

Notes// ye ye | Tagged// Aegle Verdant | WC// 809

✬

[Evangeline Lys de Verre]

tell me pretty lies

template by Punki of Adoxography

Kishka Burzanova Colton Deraine Aegle Verdant -x- approx 575 words -x- pew pew twang

Seeing that their ambush had mostly worked, Evangeline couldn't help but fix a smile on her face. She shot off another bolt at Colton when she saw him conferring with Aegle, trying to use the advantage of them being distracted to score a hit on him, before instantly realizing that was a bit of a lowblow to someone as movie-material as Colton. She simultaneously called out, "Sorry Mar- I mean, Colton! You're uh... Cool biceps!" She said, flushing before ducking back from any return fire that might've come her way while she spoke, her hands working to fix another bolt into Lis Fleurissant.

She then saw Aegle fly up and off towards Carmim, as Evangeline realized what they were doing. Oh poop. But, the advantage of people being in mid air was they didn't have many options to dodge. She quickly fired off another bolt at Aegle, using her marksmanship skills to accurately fire it according to Aegle's trajectory. Unless Aegle had a way to move in mid air, the bolt would hit some part of her. Anyone else would probably have a weapon to deflect it with, but Aegle was a sitting duck... Or rather, flying duck.

Evangeline would then turn her attention back towards the other two, seeing Kishka suddenly take flight with her umbrella, heading right towards Evangeline. Evangeline's eyes would widen briefly, before she moved, dodging back and left in a roll to dodge the incoming cannonball, rolling into a crouch to fire off another bolt at Kishka, before jumping and rolling to the right and back this time to dodge the second cannonball, drawing her violin bow in the midst of the movement. This time, she came to a halt in her crouch, Lis Fleurissant clicking closed back into a Violin form as Evangeline brought it up to rest it upon her shoulder, bringing the bow up. She winced as the first bolt that Kishka fired back at Evangeline caught her by surprise, smacking into her thigh, spinning off as it rebounded off her aura, yet not before taking off 44% of her aura. Evangeline would utter a short yelp of surprise, before she quickly moved into an evasive maneuver, back-hopping diagonally in a zigzag pattern to dodge the rest of the bolts. Given Kishka's lack of marksmanship skills, Evangeline managed to dodge the rest of the bolts fired back at her with relative ease, as her violin bow struck the strings before Kishka would land.

She instantly went into the chorus of a song she had listened to before, "Center" by DJ Viper, her violin bow skillfully playing the fast paced notes off key with precision. "I'm sorry!" She'd call out as she played. Kishka's umbrella shield would not prevent the semblance from affecting her and unless Kishka had some kind of ace in her sleeve to disregard Evangeline's semblance, the girl would quickly find her world spinning as she was in midair, from the resulting vertigo that would hit her, completely turning her landing-plan upon its head, both figuratively and literally. Evangeline would continue to play even as Kishka would land, probably badly, allowing her Semblance to reach full crescendo for the complete effect of the vertigo. The feeling of the ground being unsteady and wobbly underneath your feet as a result of the balance centers in the head not working, the inability to properly form coherent thoughts from the resulting confusion, and the annoyance of hearing a song played off-tone, like nails on a chalkboard, would all be affecting Kishka, making it difficult for her to be fully combat capable. Evangeline could feel the aura-laden strings of Lis Fleurissant heating up, but knew it was far from its breaking point yet.


------

Personal notes:
Bolts left: 29 / 40
Aura left: 65% / 100%
String Durability: 2/3 turns

[Aegle Verdant]

It was a pretty terrible plan, so far as her plans went, and, given that Aegle's most recent life decisions included enrolling in a huntsman academy, charging a pack of Grimm on her own, and convincing a doctor to provide her with thrice weekly beatings, that was really saying something. The most glaring fault in her plan became obvious at the outset, when she felt the first tingles of Colton's semblance taking hold of her metal encased body. Her brace was ergonomic, in that it was designed to move in all the ways a human body should move, and designed to resist moving any way a human body really oughtn't. Given the choice between non-natural movements and compromising of its internal structure however, the Atlesian engineer who'd designed the brace allowed for a certain amount of, charitably named, 'discomfort' on its wearer's part. Aegle had never had much cause to test just how much 'discomfort' was permissible but, as her brace was unevenly polarized with conflicting magnetic forces, sufficient to send her hurtling at high speed in an upward trajectory, she thought she was given a pretty good idea. It was useless trying to resist. First, the many motors and actuators throughout the brace seized -they were all magnetic in nature after all- before arms and legs and hips and back all twisted, momentarily, in their own disparate directions. Suffice to say, it hurt quite a lot. In less time than it took to take a breath -or, in Aegle's case, gasp with pain- near half of the crooked girl's aura was obliterated. It might have been even worse, had Aegle's body actually been strong enough to resist the myriad forces simultaneously acting upon it, but, without the power of her brace, she was as a rag doll, wholly helpless against the power of Colton's semblance.

When the red haze cleared, Aegle found herself spinning in the air and filled with a strange sense of weightlessness. There was no science, no technique, to being thrown by extreme magnetic forces and, while Colton's aim was true, no amount of control could have kept her from twisting wildly in flight. Arms, sluggish and confused, pinwheeled as she flew, and the rushing air tore a distressed squawk from her lips. She couldn't see where she was going; She'd gotten turned around somehow, and was flying through the air back first. That made some sense, most of the metal she wore was on her back after all, not that Aegle had the time or presence of mind to realize that. Aegle tried in vain to twist around, to do anything really, but it was a futile effort.

It was around that point that the second glaring fault in her plan made itself known. Every person on the opposing team had some sort of ranged ability. On her feet, with obstacles to hide behind or ground to cover, that might not have been such a big problem. Airborne and in the open, on the other hand... It really shouldn't have been such a big surprise when something punched into her shoulder with enough force to send her spinning. Aegle never saw where the blow came from, but the fact that it wasn't immediately accompanied by the burning tingle familiar to anyone who'd used lightning dust, nor the ear ringing deafness of a small concussive explosion, left only one possible source. Aegle wasn't sure how much aura the bolt left her with, though less than half seemed a pretty safe bet. Between it, the force of her launch, and the inevitable landing, Aegle figured she'd probably lucky if she had any aura left in a minute's time.

Twisting and helpless, Aegle caught sight of red in the corner of her vision, as her target swung drunkenly into view. Then she landed, though crashed might have been more accurate, shoulder first, all knees, elbows, and polarized metal. Aegle bounced off of or perhaps rolled past Carmin, it was hard to say exactly which. Whatever the case, the initial impact did precious little to arrest her momentum, and she went flailing, head over heels, a few strides further, before crunching down on her face in the stony earth; If someone had dumped out a bag of saucepans and pots onto the cliffside, it would have made a similar sound.
Rattled and thoroughly disorientated, Aegle staggered upright, or tried to at least. Soiled and scuffed, and even sporting a few scratches across her cheeks and scalp that her aura had not managed to prevent, Aegle got one leg under her and tried to stand, only to flop right back down hands and knees, her whole world spinning. Her second attempt was more successful, she actually made it to her feet that time, and staggered a few steps to left and right, as dazedly scanning her surroundings.
There, red. Aegle let out a wordless, thoughtless, utterly incoherent screech and threw herself towards the fiery hue, with no idea what she would do when she got to it. Carmin came into view through the haze of sweat and tears, though it could also have been an especially well dressed shrub for how befuddled Aegle was, in the moments directly following her crash landing. Some part of her, a part that had not been wholly concussed, knew she needed to get close, before Carmin could get an attack off; Storyteller was a devastating weapon, but only when Carmin had the space to use it.
Aegle swung wildly. It was a punch that her brother would have clouted her for, off-balance and desperate, but Aaron wasn't there and Aegle was too low on aura to worry about sticking to form. Hit fast, even if it meant not hitting very hard, before Carmin could regain her footing and bring her semblance to bear. Then, opportunity permitting, hit her again. Anything to keep her attention off of Kishka and Colton, to give her teammates one less attacker to worry about.

It wasn't an especially elegant plan but, as recent developments had plainly demonstrated, Aegle wasn't very good when it came to planning.

words - 1,017

[Carmim Clover]

❝ WORDS: 861 TAG: Aegle Verdant Colton Deraine NOTES: OH NO, NOT THE HIGH GROUND HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Aw fuck. This was unexpected. The plan had been for the three on the offensive team to launch their scattered attack all at once, and for the defending team to stay on the ground, outside of melee range. Presumably, semblance spam from Carmim and Theia, along with Evangeline's crossbow fire, would have sufficed to keep them there, as any attempt to close the distance would leave their backs open to the other two attackers, not to mention the time spent in the open, climbing up. There wasn't any chance of them being crazy or desperate enough to run into a frontal assault while flanked. At least, they had assumed there wasn't. Nobody had predicted what she was seeing now. She watched as, amidst the drum beats, electrical lashes, and flying bolts, Aegle seemed to be talking to Colton and Kishka. She listened close, trying to catch what she was saying, only to fully figure it out a moment too late: 'throw me.' Uh oh. That wasn't a good sign. She could only watch, slightly panicking now, as the little punch gremlin was yoinked off the ground somehow, and flung headlong in her direction. She gulped, and brought up her drum to try and fire off another blast, though with Aegle moving so fast and so high up, she missed both shots she took. Damn. Meanwhile, the redhead caught out of the corners of her eyes, Kishka flying at Evangeline, and Colton launching himself towards Theia. This was going to be problematic. But at least they were now in one on one fights. She trusted in Theia's ability to fend off Colton, and knew Evangeline could handle herself against Kishka. Her confidence in her comrades did not manage to extend to herself, however. Theia could fight in melee, and even Eva had been training with Qiu'li. But she was absolutely useless in close quarters, and she knew it. Her mind raced back to the bandit she'd just barely knocked off the train with her drum. If she hadn't had the environment to use to her advantage, or the element of surprise, she'd be dead. No question about it. She didn't have much more time to linger on those thoughts, because Aegle was coming in hot, and she had to react. Fast. Evangeline had plunked her with a few bolts while she was landing, but she still wasn't slowing down. She barely had time to react, tossing her drum up in front of her, and flinching backwards, feeling her aura quake a hair as it pushed back against the impact of Aegle slamming into her weapon at full force. Her aura was still going strong, though, at 90%, which was far better off than anyone on the other team at this point. Only problem, though, was now she was far outmatched by her roommate. The other girl probably had no idea, but she was by far the superior combatant here, up close. And Carmim's biggest weapon was now her greatest disadvantage- the hefty drum only served to slow her down as she tried to leap backwards, in an attempt to make some space between herself and the little punch gremlin. However, the time she had spent staggered and reeling from what was almost a devastating slam gave her opponent just enough time to surprise her. Just as she dropped her drum down by her side again, she caught a nasty shot right to the chin, sending her recoiling backwards a bit, and taking a much heftier chunk out of her aura- smacking her right down to 50%, easily. Even with Aegle's sloppy form, and not punching entirely at full strength, Carmim was not a fighter, and had been caught completely off guard- whether a lucky shot, or the result of instincts honed by relentless training, Aegle had walloped her roommate something damn fierce. Her scarlet eyes were lit up with shock and more than a bit of panic. Oh man, what to do, what to do!? She saw Aegle's fist flying back at her again, and this time managed to bring up her drum to swat it away, while attempting to run backwards, towards the bushes behind her. She and Aegle were roughly the same speed, so hopefully her attempt at smacking her back with Storyteller would buy her a bit of room to move back and aim, though she was in a tight spot either way- she couldn't exactly move as quickly backwards as someone could forwards, even if that someone was barely standing after getting thrown onto a cliff by Colton's semblance. She just had to get back a little bit more... Thinking quick, she roughly angled her drum at the ground near Aegle's legs, and fired off a blast, aiming to stir up the dirt and provide some cover so she could run to the side, starting towards Evangeline and Kishka, with hopes that either the Atlesian girl could finish off the target, or that she could get close enough to crack off a few shots before Aegle could catch up to her. This was definitely turning out to be a lot harder than she thought it would be...

LAIKA OF GS!

[Colton Deraine]

[googlefont=Open+Sans]

[attr="class","firstfriend"]

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

Thirty-five percent aura remaining.

It wasn’t enough to win unless severe mistakes were made, but it was enough to stall. The lightning started really pouring in the second he made it to the top, and the fact of the matter was that he wasn’t able to block or dodge all of it. He got one direct hit to his left shoulder when he tried to be cheeky and hold his shield out at a range that could threaten an attack, but immediately afterwards shifted the shield to as close as possible so that most of his body was protected. The lightning spread throughout his armor to do more damage than usual and forced his aura to flex, but he still had about ten percent remaining after that.

The blade was reheated by the time it went out a second time, but the shot was high and to the right when Erytheia was already moving left due to the momentary and involuntary muscle spasms that the lightning inflicted. There were already small fires, but this second shot made enough to start having a good chunk of smoke start rising up and making sure that Colton couldn’t see well enough to really defend himself to the extent he needed to. If the lightning had any actual physical force behind them his aura would have already shattered, but even without it another shot would shatter his aura for sure.

With that in mind, as soon as the sword rebounded back to his hand the Argus native made a break for the edge so he could slide back down to the road. That would get him out of the smoke so both breathing and seeing things would be easier, and also it would keep him in the fight to be a threat later on possibly even if Erytheia didn’t bother to finish him off. The shield covered him on his way down, though it was so close that the heat that was accumulating from the prolonged stream of lightning lowered his aura to about five percent when the shield finally got hot enough that Polarity simply stopped working and the thing fell on him on the way down.

The immediate response was to kick it upwards at the earliest opportunity. He couldn’t manipulate it at that point, but that didn’t mean his enemy knew that and with any luck she would come out to continue fighting and Colton could get one last Polarity enhanced throw in before he was eliminated. He didn’t have the luxury of waiting for a good opportunity, so would throw it at the first sight of movement and adjust it as needed. It would be a full speed attack so that even if his aura broke the momentum would carry it through. The fire dust was starting to wear off, but even the residual effects of the heat would be a boon and make any contact that much more damaging to aura.

Best case scenario, it was a double elimination and Colton had far exceeded his own expectations for the scenario. More likely, it would be a glancing blow and he would at least give Kishka a puncher’s chance in giving her a sizeable head start and a chance to eliminate Evangeline before Erytheia could assist. Worst case scenario, the blonde wouldn’t bother to try to finish him off and he’d have to bolt forward with five percent aura left to try to make it to Kishka before the other former Sanctum student could get there and win the match for her team.

He couldn’t defend himself anymore, not really. He could wait until his shield was cooled down enough for it to be magnetic again, but that would take too long and give his enemy a head start if she didn’t poke her head out. The kick upwards was a bluff and nothing more, and if it didn’t do anything his only option would be to try and get off one more attack as accurately as possible before his aura shattered. If she went to support Evangeline instead of chasing Colton, well, his one play became a whole lot harder because of all the smoke and his position in the much lower ground making it next to impossible to predict the spot where the blonde would emerge.

It wasn’t ideal, but at the very least Carmim hadn’t fired off a blast from behind him to shatter his aura just yet. That distraction gave him a window of opportunity to try and make something happen, and quite frankly the brunette was going to make the most out of it.

※ 5400 total words ✎ 769 words ✉ D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, D ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Erytheia Hellebore]

The noble warrior stood, and the people looked to her.
For she was a beacon - hope given form, yet still only human.
Within that truth there was great promise.
If one could stand against the night, then so too could anyone - everyone.

In her hand the warrior held a Rose. And her aura burned bright.

❝

Something exploded through another tree, but this one was further away and the rain of debris didn’t touch her. The shower of embers, however, was enough to send many more fires flaring up as the woodland detritus caught and started to burn in earnest. Through the smoke and flames, the Hellebore heiress caught sight of Deraine’s sword, arcing back through the trees to land back in his hand - and then Deraine himself, backing away to the edge. Erytheia whirled out of cover and fired off another bolt at him, but it only sizzled harmlessly through the air above his head as it disappeared behind the dirt of the extended ridge. He was gone.

Without hesitation, the Huntress in training ducked out of cover and sprinted her way towards where Deraine had disappeared, the combined form of her lance in one hand and red electricity crackling in the other. Burzanova had already been launched towards the other ridge, where Eva had been laying down her assault, and Aegle had already been thrown by Deraine’s own Semblance presumably to where Carmim was. While the ideal situation was to leave Deraine be and reinforce the smaller blonde girl in her fight with the objective, there was the small fact that Deraine was in between them, and that the gap between the two ridges was too far to leap in a single bound. Moreover, trying to do so would simply make her a target for a devastating Polarity empowered attack, and relocating out of Deraine’s range before trying to do so would give the other time to reinforce Burzanova’s own position.

She had to take him out here, and make sure that he never made it to her teammates.

With Airtafae crackling in her hand and ready to launch as soon as she willed it, Erytheia dove over the edge of the ridge, ready to blast the retreating trainee as soon as she saw him. At the first sight of movement, she let loose, a red arc of lightning cracking through the air to smash into Deraine’s shield. That was to be expected, since it had been his first line of defense against her Semblance since the battle had started. What was not expected, however, was the distance that shield currently was from its wielder, and the fact that instead of being held steady by the invisible forces of Polarity, it was easily knocked away by the force of her own blast. Instead of shielding himself from the attack, he had thrown it upwards and towards her as she had come over the edge of the ridge. A decoy - and she had fallen for it.

In that instant, watching Deraine start to pull his hand back to throw his sword once again, a surge of panicked anxiety flooded through Erytheia, and then, as quickly as it had come, faded into tranquil calmness. She had been outplayed, in her eagerness to pursue, contain, and eliminate.‌ But there was one final trick up her sleeve she could use, a last ace she could throw on to the playing field in this desperate hour. It wasn’t something she wanted to use at all, considering how much damage it did to her own Aura - but in the here and now, it was the only option she had left. Taking out Deraine from the defending team’s lineup would decrease their firepower quite significantly, more so than the attacking team’s own if she were to be removed from it. It was the logical thing to do. In this instance, she was worth less than the other.

Just as she had always been.

With a loud crack akin to thunder as the air was rent asunder, Airtafae’s crimson power exploded out of her in every direction in the blink of an eye. Its ravenous hunger devoured her Aura even as it ripped it to shreds, the ferocious red energy flaring out to everywhere it could reach, fueled as it was by the same thing that protected her from its wrath. Said Aura flared gold and shattered nearly instantly as the Hellebore heir was thrown into the wall that shored up the ridge they had previously been fighting on from the energy blast. She then fell the rest of the way, landing awkwardly on her side and having the breath knocked out of her a second time - as if the pain from the Aura breaking wasn’t enough. Panting, she pushed herself to her feet after sucking in a breath, though she wobbled and eventually slumped against the dirt wall once again when it became clear that the last ditch effort had taken everything out of her.

I hope you two can handle the rest, my squad mates. I won’t be able to help you like this.

Erytheia Hellebore was done - and, hopefully - so was Colton Deraine.

@ ● 804 words ● 4800 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

Heh. She had felt, through her semblance, as the bolt smacked into Evangeline, a great shot that seemed to catch her off guard. The purple-head grinned, getting just a little cockier than she had any right to be, sailing through the air. She knew she was closing in the distance, and even if Evangeline shot at her while she was landing, she couldn't do enough damage to really stop her from putting her down in melee range. The simple fact of the matter was that while Eva arguably outclassed her at range (on account of having the high ground, of course, and nothing more), Kishka was by far the superior combatant up close. That fancy crossbow was good, but far too delicate to make much of a bludgeon, whereas her umbrella was effectively a short-staff first, and a cannon second. If she could get within striking distance, blondie wouldn't last long. Hopefully she hadn't done any real research- up to this point, Kishka was known foremost as a ranged fighter, based on her most recent mission. The only way she could have seen her fighting up close was if she had gone through and watched her Mistral Tournament fight video, and as she hadn't made it too far (damn you, Colton Deraine) it was unlikely that Eva even knew she had competed. At least, that was what she was thinking as she flew closer, preparing to touch ground. She had her. Even as her other redirected bolts missed their mark, she was just buying time until she could la- It was exactly at this moment that Kishka realized precisely where she had fucked up with her plan. Because in her overconfident assault, she managed to forget that Evangeline's semblance was an unknown factor. She had never seen it in use, and it wasn't like Eva was top of the class or anything, so she hadn't heard rumors about it either. But as she watched the crossbow turn to a violin, she realized exactly how unprepared she was for this. Shit. Notes came pouring out of the instrument in a flurry, harsh and discordant. Supernaturally so- she immediately felt a wave of nausea rock her body, as if she had tossed back her dad's entire liquor cabinet. Except at least slugging back liquor was pleasant. This was not. It was maybe even a little worse for Kishka- she had been raised to have ]culture, as a member of Mistral's upper crust. She knew what good violin-playing sounded like, and she knew what bad violin-playing sounded like. This was equal parts of both- the little Atlesian was playing intentionally, with as much dissonance as she could muster. It was remarkable, frankly- she sometimes envied those with musical semblances, such as this, or shitty little red's. They could make pretty inspiring villains, with a little work. Ugh. Stop thinking, Kishka. Her head hurt, and she completely botched her landing as a result, dropping her aura by another tenth, to 70% total. More to the point, she stumbled as she fell, rolling across the ground, and struggling to stand up. The girl just kept playing the violin too... But even through her splitting headache, she recognized that Eva was vulnerable now- sure, she could dodge and hop around, but she'd have to stop playing to really block or fire her crossbow, which meant if she could make her way to her, she would be able to bring her down, and stopping that damnable racket would hopefully turn off the effects that made her every movement so sloppy. Fortunately, she was a trained fighter, and more than capable of pulling through this. It might take a little more effort, but there wasn't anything like a challenge to really drive her, and get her going. She grinned, as she tried to center her focus on the girl, stumbling forward with a lurching motion as she pulled herself to her feet. "Sorry, I'm more of a Late Romantic fan- music with a lot more punch, like ehh... 10 BV Overture." She was proud of that reference- as she made her haphazard charge, she whipped her umbrella from right to left, firing off a quick volley of two shots, not caring if they hit or not, just hoping they would distract. Plus, classical music references, against a violinist? Who could pass up that opportunity?! The cannon truly was her favorite musical instrument. The cannon was also her favorite distraction- as she stumbled closer to Eva, she snapped the umbrella closed with a click of its trigger, and set about barbarically swinging it at the blonde, sacrificing strength for speed- with her reduced accuracy, she couldn't count on any attack hitting, so a fast volley was the only logical attack, hoping that her instincts with her weapon could make up the difference made by the painful 'music.' Things weren't looking up, all of a sudden- she heard a loud boom from Aegle's position, and a huge crackle of lightning from Colton's. Hopefully they weren't both out of the fight- she was not trying to carry this whole team, those slackers ought to be pulling their weight too, dammit.

Notes// eva rainin on my parade :bigsad: | Tagged// whoever next | WC// 870

✬

[Evangeline Lys de Verre]

tell me pretty lies

template by Punki of Adoxography

Kishka Burzanova -x- 580 words -x- she musicc but she also attacc

Her semblance had worked wonderfully as Evangeline watched Kishka plummet and eat dirt, her aura shimmering to indicate it had, in-fact, hurt her. Evangeline couldn't help the bright smile on her lips even though the rest of her face was somewhat tensed with focus on her semblance and her playing.

"Ouch, sorry!" She said, apologizing again despite the smile on her face as she watched Kishka slowly rise back up. Kishka was speaking and slowly lurching forward in a drunken manner, but Evangeline wasn't as airheaded as most people thought of her. Every slow step Kishka took forward, Evangeline would skip backwards, keeping the same distance between them, a safe distance. Evangeline had no doubt Kishka was more of a melee combatant than a ranged combatant, and she was adamant at keeping the purple haired girl out of melee range.

And then, Kishka suddenly lunged forward in a wild, stumbling charge, bringing her umbrella around. A stroke of panic lit up inside of Evangeline, as time seemed to slow down to a crawl. Her first instinct was to run backwards or skip sideways, probably while making a squeaking noise of distress. But then, an image flashed into her mind, of a man with very scowl-y eyes and dark hair, with an pink foggy filter surrounding him that might or might not have been present at the actual event of this memory. She remembered the instructions he had spoken, explaining how when faced with a charging opponent, it was smarter to dive forward to get inside of their guard. "When enemy come forward, you go forward. Go inside enemy guard. Catch surprise. Useful more dodge back or side. Unexpect. Move how not expect. I know you do it can, my love one true. Heart believe you." He had instructed... Perhaps those weren't his exact words, but the message was still the same!

Well, it was now or never.

Time seemed to come back up to speed as Evangeline stopped playing and... lunged forward as well, ducking her head into a roll as she did so. The distance between the two closed twice as fast with how Evangeline had reacted, the shots that would've hit her if she had dodged left or right missing her completely while the umbrella swung over her head as Evangeline rolled past the disoriented Kishka. As soon as Evangeline's head came back up from the roll, her feet going below her again, she whipped her right hand backwards, trying to whack the metal spine of her violin bow against the back of Kishka's knees. She quickly got to her feet and skipped backwards away from any retaliation Kishka would attempt, but not before she got smacked once across the back by a closed umbrella due to Kishka's wild flailing, her aura flaring as it absorbed the blow, getting 30% chunked off from the errant blow. She created distance once more, her violin snapping into crossbow form as she drew, nocked and fired a bolt at Kishka while the girl was still trying to get her bearings on Evangeline's new position. Vertigo could be hell on directional senses.

As soon as she had fired that off, her violin snapped shut back into its instrument form again as Evangeline rushed forward with a warcry that sounded more terrified than aggressive, bringing her violin around like a mace to crack against Kishka's face or the back of her head, depending on which orientation the girl had at that time.


------

Personal notes:
Bolts left: 28 / 40
Aura left: 35% / 100%
String Durability: 2/3 turns

[Aegle Verdant]

Her fist punch connected, finding its mark amidst the blurry haze of sweat and tears that filled Aegle's vision. She almost couldn't believe it, but the sweetness of the blow was unmistakable, and carried with it that faint degree of give that she knew from her training sessions with Doc. The blurry blob of red and white that she knew to be Carmin staggered back, and Aegle gave chase, throwing a second punch on unsteady legs. This one hit something much harder than the first, something which did not yield in that tell tale way, but instead resounded with a hollow thud as it bashed her blow aside. Undeterred, Aegle forged onward, putting one foot unsteadily before the other. It seemed almost like the hill were some great beast. A beast who, offended by her presence on its back, was trying determinedly to buck her off.

At first she'd thought it was just the dizziness from being thrown, the concussion of her landing, or some combination of the two, but it was getting worse. Each step Aegle took seemed mired in moving earth, as if the ground itself were not as close as it appeared. She tried to ignore it, tried to forge on ahead in spite of it. It, and the roaring in her ears.

Carmin had managed to put some space between them, though Aegle had not noticed her doing so. Then again, with her world seeming to sway about her, pitching wither and tither, it was really shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise. Just as it shouldn't have surprised Aegle so when she heard the telltale clatter of Carmin's drumming. Some instinct told, buried too deep in her subconscious to even register as a thought, made her jump, even though jumping defied the most fundamental rule of boxing, which was to always keep ones feet on the ground. It as a good thing too because Aegle's feet had no sooner left the ground than said ground blasted apart in a sudden burst of stones and sound, so loud it replaced the roar in Aegle's ears with a shrill whine.

Airborne, flailing, Aegle flipped head over heels and came down in the dirt, shoulder first. She tumbled half a stride, before thudding down heavily on her back, driving all the wind from her lungs in a painful gust.
'I could just lay here,' She thought, feeling the hurts that resounded through her, the cost of using as little aura as possible, 'I could just lay here, and never get up.
She was so tired. How could she be so tired? It felt like she'd been stuck in this canyon for weeks. Weeks of painful silence, waiting for the other team to prepare, then weeks of contempt from Colton and cruel looks for Kishka, followed thereupon by yet more weeks upon weeks of waiting, with every breath, for an attack that she knew must come. This fight seemed longest of all. For how quickly everything had happened, it still felt like it had taken half her lifetime. She was so tired. Exhausted.

Would it really matter if she just lay there, with her hurts and her exhaustion, with her doubt and the contempt of her teammates? Would it really matter if she lay there, and never got up? Aegle knew the answers. Knew it, with a painful certainty.

'So why am I getting up?

With an aching groan, Aegled pulled herself to her feet and stumbled in a drunken half circle, finding her bearings. Nothing looked real. She saw the canyon, the cliffs, the stones and shrubs beneath her feet, but it looked so artificial, fake somehow, like lines on paper. Not real. She must have hit her head; It didn't matter. Her eyes, unfocused, alighted upon a wisp of red some half a dozen strides from where she'd fallen. Carmin, she knew, running along the cliff's edge.
Aegle gave chase. She did not understand how Carmin's semblance worked, not really, and rather doubted Storyteller had much in common with most ranged weapons. One thing it did have in common however was that it needed to be aimed, and aiming anything, so Aegle thought, was most easily done by standing still. If Carmin tried to hit Kishka, she would stop. If she stopped, Aegle could close the gap. If Aegle closed the gap; When she closed the gap, Aegle would punch her friend as hard as she possibly could.

Then, and only then, would she let herself stop, would she lie down and finally rest.

---

words - 763

[Carmim Clover]

❝ WORDS:1101 TAG: @next NOTES: haha smart plan sandyboi HAVE YOU SEEN HER? HAVE YOU HEARD? THE WAY SHE MOVES, THERE ARE NO WORDS Honestly, she was a little relieved to note that Aegle had dodged her downward blast. It had only been intended as a distraction, after all, not an outright attack, so she was glad to see that her friend wasn't hurt by it. Or well, not too hurt. Actually, she wasn't so sure- she hadn't seen her aura break, but she was also just kinda lying there... For a moment, her friendship instincts nearly took over, and she almost rushed over to check on her roommate, but then she remembered that this was a class, and for the moment, they were opponents, not friends. Oof. That was a hard thing to think about. If it were up to Carmim, she would be friends with all of her enemies. Even the meanest bandits, because if she was friends with them, they wouldn't attack her or her other friends. It was a dumb idea, maybe, but she thought it would be a nice world, if things worked like that. Unfortunately, the world wasn't nice. She knew that. Everyone born in Vacuo knew that, or they didn't make it long there. And even though she was definitely not cut out for Shade Academy's brutal race to the top, she still had that mindset, in the very back of her instincts. Survival. That was what this class was all about- complete the objective, that was it. She didn't look back as she raced towards Eva. She was a good ways off, farther than Carmim could easily reach, but her semblance was tied with Colton's as the furthest-reaching ranged weapon on the field, so she just had to get about eighteen meters away from Kishka to put this thing in the bag. Piece of cake, assuming Eva didn't take her down first. Unfortunately, she wasn't very fast. Possibly, the slowest out of everyone present, in fact- between her short legs and her heavy drum, she was a distance runner, not a sprinter. She had the stamina to run as long as she needed to, but not nearly enough speed. Which might be a bad thing. Because she could hear Aegle standing up. Ah, shit. She had sort of hoped she was down for the count (but not injured!) back there. Seemed like she would need to finish this off pretty quickly. Hmmm. This was a dilemma, though- could she reach Kishka and Eva before Aegle caught her? She debated it, but didn't stop running to think. She couldn't afford to do that. The mission's goal was simple- eliminate the VIP, not the whole team. But if Aegle got too close again, she was definitely able to do some damage. Her aura still felt strong, though- she could tank at least one more direct hit, no problem. It wasn't something she wanted to do, but it was something she could definitely pull off, even though it would mean she'd only really have one big shot left in her for Kishka. Hopefully, Eva could hold out until she got there- she might not be able to drain the girl's aura completely with one hit, but she could definitely put her on the defense, and give her friend an opening. But to do that, first she would have to get punched. Hard. She was not looking forward to this. About a quarter of the way between where she had been, and where she needed to be, she stopped and suddenly swiveled around, planting her left leg firmly in the ground. Anyone who had seen her use her semblance at full power, in other classes, or the Argus Limited videos, would know that stance, and she was hoping Aegle would recognize it too. It was sneaky, a little underhanded, but a clever bit of deception- she wasn't bracing for an attack, she was just hoping to slow down Aegle's charge, and throw her off a little bit. She even threw up her arm, as if she were about to strike. Aegle was running sloppily, but she didn't want to chance missing her shot- she could only really crack off one good one, and she needed her balance to eat this punch. So, as Aegle continued her bold charge at the little redhead, she planted her legs firmly into the dirt, bracing herself against the ground, and against her back leg, as best as she could. She couldn't help but flinch back though, just a bit, jerking her face to the side, as the little punch gremlin got dangerously close and socked her right in the other side of her head, sending her reeling to the right, just a little off-balance. Her aura fizzled hot scarlet red as the punch landed, but it didn't break- she was down to about 10% of her aura, maybe a little under even, as Aegle's blow landed hard as hell, at full strength. Maybe this was a bad idea... But that didn't matter, as she was already in the process of executing her plan. Off in the distance, she heard Eva's music stop, and hoped that didn't mean what she thought it meant. But there was no time to turn and check on that just yet- with all of her strength, and a feral war cry, she brought up her heavy wooden drum, and went to slam it viciously into Aegle's side, like a makeshift club. Carmim knew her friend's aura had to be running awfully low, at this point, so her hope was that the heavy-handed attack would shatter it, and take Aegle out of the fight, so she could continue back towards Eva and Kishka, to help her friend win this thing. Whether Aegle went down or not, she would turn tail and try to clear the remaining distance to the other two fighters. But as she did, she yelled back over her shoulder, "I am so sorry, my friend, forgive me! I will be back to check on you after t'e fighting is over!" Hopefully Aegle wasn't too badly hurt. But also, hopefully she was actually down this time. She would feel really, really, dumb if she was apologizing to someone who was still in the fight, after all. She couldn't really see her friend through the bushes and thick underbrush, but she hoped Eva was doing all right against the umbrella girl. Carmim knew Eva could take her on, no problem. And hopefully, that belief was accurate, because she didn't know if she could make it to her in time to be of much help. But she had to try anyways, right? Come on, Eva- you can do t'is!

LAIKA OF GS!

[Colton Deraine]

[googlefont=Open+Sans]

[attr="class","firstfriend"]

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

Well, this day was just full of surprises.

Erytheia had followed him down for some reason, which was a mistake. Her first attack went to his red-hot and shield that he had kicked up in desperation more than anything, and while it was launched away from him it wasn’t like it was much help anyway at its current temperature. Rearing his arm back for a toss, his opponent made her next mistake as she decided to self-destruct almost in a burst of lightning and energy that shattered the former champion’s aura immediately and knocked his sword away like a tennis ball where it clattered against the ground about five meters away as a result of the blast.

As soon as he was physically able to, Colton started laughing. Even after his aura broke, the residual electricity lit through his metal armor and forced him to his knees unable to move in addition to leaving him with minor burns and severe albeit temporary pain all throughout his body while the electricity faded away. Out of everything that could have happened, the last thing he expected was for one of his enemies to take themselves out for no reason. Somewhere along the way there was such a huge miscalculation as to be comical, and since the Argus native was out of the exercise anyway it wasn’t like he had anything better to do at this point.

”You’re really out of practice.” he’d note, voice loud enough to carry. ”Look into relearning how to attack in multiple directions at once without burning through all your aura. If you had done that to begin with, you’d have won really early on and been able to back up Evangeline for an almost guaranteed win. Following me down was also a mistake, you should have seen my aura flex earlier to know that what you did was way overkill.” Completely unsolicited, Colton was never one to shy away from giving his opinion whether the other party wanted it or not.

”Power doesn’t mean anything if you can’t control it. I think I’ll skip the metal armor next time though, regardless. Sucks that the smoke means we won’t be able to see what happens even if we climb back up – how fast do you think Carmim is? I can’t imagine tossing Kishka over the finish line would work, but if she can’t make it there in time I guess it doesn’t really matter.” He’d continue, dispassionate despite the fact that his team was technically still in this. The almost third person tone in which he spoke made it clear that he didn’t really care one way or another how this ended, because he didn’t think it concerned him in the slightest.

Despite the fact he had his aura broken pretty violently, he was durable enough to have it affect him much less than most others. Sure, it didn’t exactly feel good and he sure as hell wasn’t in a hurry to start moving around very quickly and was going to stay in place to catch his breath but he was also more than capable of forcing the issue had it been required. He found that over time getting his aura broken over and over it became easier and easier to take it in stride and minimize the effects that the admittedly awful feeling of exhaustion and pain wracking through his body all at once had on Colton’s fighting effectiveness. It didn’t feel any better, but if there wasn’t any weird shit like electricity coursing through his armor he could more or less just ignore it for the most part.

”She was really far back, too. Too far. That was a mistake, and so was having your weakest member as your last line of defense. You would’ve probably beat Kishka back there and Carmim definitely would have. Having the tree behind us at all was pointless and definitely not worth sacrificing your strongest member – we can’t win unless we go forward anyway.” His tone didn’t leave neutral and disaffected, like he was going over a lesson in class or something that had zero relevance to the situation at hand. In his mind it was a technical error of inexperience and thus correctable. Since his overarching goal was to raise the average level of his peers so he could get above average teammates for the Vytal Festival, it served his purposes to help those, even if that help was slight, to become a bit better so they improved faster.

”Instead, we probably win now unless Kishka chokes really bad. I hope they let me run the other side of this at some point, you can really make it almost impossible to lose with that half hour setup time. Look up some of the backlog of Argent and Elena working together in earlier exercises for a couple of ideas, maybe. They beat one guy so hard he rage quit the entire school afterwards early on.” he recalled with a laugh. ”Was this like eight feet tall, three hundred pound roided up gorilla type of dude who just completely lost his shit when he lost really badly the first time.”

”He didn’t even get within ten feet of either of them. He just tripped, fell, got blasted a bunch, and then walked the fuck out never to be seen again on this earth without saying a god damned word to anyone. At least you're not him.”

※ 6305 total words ✎ 905 words ✉ D rank semblance, D ranked martial arts, D ranked durability, D ranked weapon, E rank weapon enhancement, E rank stamina

MADE BY MIZO

[Erytheia Hellebore]

The noble warrior stood, and the people looked to her.
For she was a beacon - hope given form, yet still only human.
Within that truth there was great promise.
If one could stand against the night, then so too could anyone - everyone.

In her hand the warrior held a Rose. And her aura burned bright.

❝

Still panting and slumped against the cliff wall after her Aura had been shattered, Erytheia took a breath and gathered herself into a more dignified seating position, brushing away the worst of the dirt that had scattered over her uniform when she took the fall. It was then that Deraine had started making a sound that she had rarely, if ever heard from him - it took longer than she wanted to admit for Erytheia to realize that he was laughing. The boy didn’t usually laugh in the combat tapes she’d seen of him, or the few live matches she’d had the opportunity to get a better view at. In fact, she’d never seen him laugh in class, either - other than the rare occasion where said laugh was filled with rage and mockery and used as a taunt whenever he and others would butt heads. One in particular, a stoic, taciturn young fellow with a transformation Semblance, had often been the target of Deraine’s aggression, though for the life of her she could not recall his name to mind, nor what he had done to warrant such treatment. Not too surprising, considering that she had only really been at Haven for less than a fortnight, coming in with the second influx of students rather than the initial trainees who’d come after the Fall - lacking the experience they had with the other trainees, she could only guess as to the status of the web of relationships that every school developed, at least for now.

Tilting her head at him questioningly, the Hellebore heiress winced ever so slightly as he spoke. Not for his criticism of the strategy that she had put together, for she could, with a little reflection, see the same flaws herself - but for the assumption that she could control her Semblance properly in the first place. She couldn’t blame him, of course - with no context, it was natural to think that Airtafae had manifested at a young age like most Semblances did, and not that she’d only had it for two years, give or take a few months. Still, she nodded politely as he continued to speak, expounding further on the strategy’s flaws and her tactical errors.

Erytheia did not mention that she had not seen his Aura shimmer, hidden from view as it had been from her by the combined smoke from the fires and the ducking in and out of cover. She did not mention that she had little knowledge of nearly everyone present, and that prioritizing the threat with the most potential to turn the tide of battle in either fashion was her best bet at ensuring success. They sounded like excuses to her, and she had no doubt that they would do so as well to the other Sanctum graduate. Hindsight was indeed a harsh mistress, but she could only improve when it came to future engagements, not erase the stain of past mistakes. The young woman dipped her head slightly, blonde hair shifting with the movement. Her tone held a grateful note within it when she next spoke, in reply to his own words.

“That is indeed true. I have been away from combat for a long time, and it will take me a while to accustom myself to it once more. Thank you for taking the time to give advice,‌ Mister Deraine. I will certainly keep it in mind.”

Glancing off to the other ridge, where sounds of battle were still ongoing,‌ Erytheia managed a small, polite smile at Deraine’s description of such a beastly man being such a pushover in personality enough that he would disappear from the school after his first day. While she did note down those names for future reference, her attention was certainly directed more towards the site of battle. If Evangeline hadn’t been taken out by the other girl yet, whom she was aware was a Sanctum graduate and thus had some degree of skills and training that were not to be taken lightly, then perhaps there was still a chance they might not be doomed to failure just yet. She didn’t know Carmim’s status, as far away as she and Aegle were, but based on what she knew alone, Evangeline’s Semblance was uniquely suited to keeping foes disoriented and thus hindering their movement. That might just be the edge the smaller girl needed to even the odds.

Shaking off her thoughts, Erytheia turned back to Deraine nevertheless and gave a second smile, this one with more depth than the last.

“Still, it seems as though Evangeline has yet to either fall or let Miss Burzanova escape the situation. Perhaps there might be a chance to make up for the shortcomings of the plan yet - at least, I hope that might be the case. Even if that does not end up happening, it never hurts to hope, if I dare say so myself.”

@ ● 816 words ● 5616 total words

MADE BY MIZO

[Kishka Burzanova]

KISHKA BURZANOVA

It was like hunting a damn rabbit. Evangeline was just a much faster opponent than Kishka had anticipated- frankly, it surprised her, as most ranged foes she'd faced to this point had been more like Carmim, standing in place like a turret. Argent was an exception, but he was, after all, exceptionally in many ways, so it didn't cross her mind that maybe Eva was similar. Regardless, her charge was sloppy and poorly executed, and what's more, it left her open to little blondie's surprising choice of actions- she charged at Kishka, sliding deftly past her, and cracking her bow across the backs of her knees as she went by, winging her for about 15% Aura damage, as the purple-haired girl swung around, nearly falling over as she tried to figure out exactly where Eva was, and how she got there. This was a hopeless battle, if she just kept on moving without thinking through her actions. Eva could just dance around her, taking little jabs here and there. Something had to give, she had to get an opportunity to leave. She closed her left eye, hoping to stop some of the annoying double vision she had going on from the vertigo, which helped a little, but not enough to quell the turning feeling in her stomach. It was just getting worse, and worse. She was smart, though. She could figure a way out of this. She took a look around, looking for a sign that pointed her in the right direction. Between being thrown, and getting hit with that horrible music, she had gotten a little turned around. But she could see where the cliff was, and knew which side she had come at it from, which meant her goal was... That way. Evangeline was faster than her, that much was known, but she could clear a little bit of the distance, so that if she had to, she could make a run for it. The girl was a ranged fighter, so she'd definitely take a hit or two in the back, but she could conceivably get through it alright. Maybe. Speaking of which, she barely had time to react as Evangeline nocked and fired off another bolt at her, using her vertigo to an advantage, as she just dead-slumped to the ground, missing the bolt by a couple of inches as she fell. It wasn't a very graceful maneuver, but it was effective, at least. Now the struggle was getting back up. She had to think of something fast, though, because Evangeline was charging at her again, screaming like a damn barbarian. It was unorthodox, to say the least. Batshit bonkers, to say a little more. She dropped her umbrella, and scrambled to her feet, one foot planted, one knee bent as Eva came in closer. It was a longshot of a strategy, but it might just work, as long as she could pull it off. She had faith in her aura not to shatter from even a direct hit, and she figured if Evangeline was charging like that, her own defenses would be neglected. Hopefully she hadn't realized yet that Kishka's semblance was based on touch. Dropping the umbrella had been done so as to appear accidental, and she was sure her facial expression was one of alarm and shock, as she tried to get to her feet. When Eva came rushing in with her crossbow held high, Kishka would attempt to throw her hands up, and try to stumble backwards, in what she hoped was the general direction of the endpoint. Unbeknownst to Evangeline, however, as she tanked the full direct hit against her already-throbbing head, if everything went according to plan, she just pulled her umbrella sharply forward, aiming to slam it into Eva's back, from a relatively point-blank starting point. Even with the vertigo and Eva's heightened mobility, it was a stupidly easy shot, and one she hoped would work well for her. Whether she landed a direct hit or not, she would pull the umbrella back into her hand, and immediately turn tail and stumble-run as far from Evangeline as she could, towards the goal point, if she was able to. Her Aura had been smacked down to about 15% by the vicious crossbow clubbing, and it crackled a dark midnight black as the blow had connected, but she figured she had done some damage to Evangeline as well. She just had to keep running, and hope she didn't get shot in the back. Easier said than done, of course. Either way, not especially bad, considering how badly the odds were stacked against them from the start.

Notes// JEDI ATAK | Tagged// Evangeline Lys de Verre | WC// 779 | TWC// 4508

✬

[Evangeline Lys de Verre]

tell me pretty lies

template by Punki of Adoxography

Kishka Burzanova -x- 968 words -x- its a flying croissant!

Evangeline's charge was many things. It was wild, reckless, stupid. Something borne of the heat of the moment, not from logic or clear thought. She barely even paid attention to anything around her other than Kishka's rising face and her violin coming around like a mace. It was obvious so far that Evangeline had both the range and the speed advantage, and all she would have to do was keep Kishka at a range to whittle her down and win this for her team. And yet that was not what she had done now was it? She had charged in recklessly, even swinging her violin around in a wild arc with her eyes almost closed. So reckless was her charge that she didn't even notice the dropped umbrella.

Not until she stepped on it, throwing her balance off while the violin was already mid swing. She felt the crack of her violin hitting the side of Kishka's, the aura flashing as the umbrella underneath her right foot rolled under her step. She was about to fall after th-

The umbrella suddenly shot up, with Evangeline's foot still on top of it, and all of a sudden, the world was upside down. With her foot having tripped on the umbrella right as Kishka attempted her maneuver, it actually flung Evangeline up into a cartwheel. Kishka's main attack missed, the umbrella only catching on Evangeline's leg in a weird way as it flung her up and around, but Evangeline still took a heavy hit to her aura between that and slamming into the ground face first. Her aura began shimmering, down to the slivers as Evangeline recovered from the blow. She cursed herself for charging in blindly like that, but her exact blindness to the surroundings had saved her in the end. If Kishka had landed that hit square like the attempt had been planned, it would've shattered Evangeline's aura entirely. Instead it had winged her, flipped her and downed her. Evangeline had smacked into the ground on her front, tasting dirt in her mouth while the clatter of her bolts surrounded her, most of them having fallen out when she was flipped from the centrifugal force.

Evangeline took only a second or two to get her bearings straight before pushing herself back up, looking up to see Kishka making a beeline for the edge of the cliff they were on. Looks like she was trying to end the mission by running to the finish line. A good attempt, and a good chance of it succeeded. Evangeline scrambled up, picking up a single bolt and running after Kishka, flicking Lis Fleurissant open into its crossbow form and slotting the bolt in.

Her aura shimmered and flickered over her skin with golden hues, and Evangeline's lungs and throat burned with her breaths as exhaustion began to take hold of her. She was closing the distance on Kishka's head start, but Kishka still was ahead of her. There was only one flaw in Kishka's plan, and one chance that Evangeline would have to win the class. One shot. Hit, and it was a win. Miss, and it was a loss.

They were still on top of a cliff, and if Kishka wanted to get to the finish line, she would have to jump off the cliff to the road down below, a good drop of a few meters. And that was exactly where Evangeline's lynchpin was. Mid air, it was nigh impossible to change one's trajectory enough to dodge a projectile, especially one that would be shot from someone following the same trajectory. Evangeline ran after Kishka, watching the girl make the leap, and Evangeline jumped right after her. The distance between them had closed enough for Evangeline to hopefully take an accurate shot.

Time seemed to slow as Evangeline left the edge of the cliff, taking a leap of faith right after Kishka, heading face first. She brought up her cross bow, holding it with both hands for maximum accuracy, scoping in on the purple haired girl's center-of-mass. One shot... All she needed was one shot. She was tilting due to her dive, pitching forward... As soon as her crosshairs came over Kishka's target, she pulled the trigger, and set the bolt loose, aiming to hit Kishka midair where she hopefully could not dodge. Would it hit? Would it be enough to incapacitate the girl? Evangeline would not know, as she continued to pitch forward, Lis Fleurissant flying out of her hands after the shot was taken.

She hit the ground arms first, falling into a roll with a vicious cracking noise, followed by the mixture of noises similar to a string snapping and glass shattering as Evangeline's aura fragmented into a million pieces and disappeared around her like fading fireflies of sunlight. She groaned as the pain of the fall slammed into her... Her remaining aura had taken most of the fall's damage from her, but she had still sustained some minor scrapes on her arms from the fall and subsequent slide on the rough dirt, not to mention a throbbing pain had started in her arms. Oh she'd have bruises after this, but nothing serious from what she could guess.

She shakily pushed herself up with one arm, and flopped herself onto her back, sighing with exhaustion. She couldn't see Kishka from her supine position, only the sky above her, and she was still recovering from the fall to sit up and look. She gave the sky a tired smile.
"D-Did I get you?" She called out to Kishka in a hoarse voice. She wondered if the girl would even stick around on the chance that Eva missed her shot, so silence would be a good enough answer to her question... But Evangeline was hoping she had managed it.



------

Personal notes:
Bolts left: 0 / 40
Aura left: 0% / 100%

TWC so far: Approx 4172 words

[Aegle Verdant]

The world was a slideshow, as seen through the lens of an especially old and poorly maintained projector. Nothing looked right, nothing looked solid. Colors stood out with garish brightness, or else were completely lost in a muted muddle. The sun was too bright, the ground too dark, and the corners of her vision were all but black with shadow. Aegle staggered after Carmim, keeping her footing and her form more out of habit that any conscious effort, trying to ignore the roaring in her ears and the way her arm was going numb.

She thought she might actually make it to Carmim before she noticed she was coming. Deaf to the world the way Aegle was, she had no idea just how loud her approach was, unable to here the tortured whirring of her brace, nor the scuff of her leaden footsteps, nor the ragged and uneven panting that passed for her breathing, over the grinding, throbbing, pulsing that filled her head. For that reason, it came as a bit of a surprise when Carmim turned to face her. She staggered on though, as ready to punch her best friend in the face as she would have been to punch her in the back of the head. Not even Carmim's upraised hand, an unspoken threat of Storyteller's wrath, was enough to make Aegle stop. She almost hoped that Carmim would do it, that she might blast the last bit of aura Aegle was clinging to so that she could finally lay down. She didn't though, Gods only knew why not. Perhaps she'd feared Aegle avoiding the blow like she had before. Perhaps she was as reluctant to hit her friend as Aegle was.

Whatever the reason, as Aegle staggered into range, Carmim did nothing but stand there with feet outspread, as if she were inviting the blow. Exhausted, delirious, and wanting nothing more than to lay down, Aegle was happy to oblige. She wound back, lumbered forward and threw herself at Carmim, fist first, with every last ounce of her strength behind the blow. Whether that would be enough to shatter Carmim and take her out of of the fight was no longer even a concern to Aegle. It no longer mattered to her if she was able to beat Carmim, or stop her from bringing Storyteller to bear against Kishka. Her objective, her only objective, as it had been from the very beginning, was just to delay her friend as long as she was able. Well, this as it, this was as long as Aegle was able. This punch. This punch and all the cuts, scrapes, bumps, and bops that had preceded it. This punch, and being thrown across the battlefield by Colton, where every piece of metal on or in her had been turned into a missile.

This punch, and the roaring in her ears and the numbness in her bones. This punch, and everything behind it.

'There.' Aegle thought, not triumphant, but relieved. She saw her fist knock Carmim's head around, though she did not feel the connection. She watched her friend reel back, but keep her footing, and lost her own. She saw a flash of movement, a glimpse of wood and leather, and then she saw stars as her own head was knocked around. Staggering, Aegle dropped to her knees and, from the impact, a faint dusting of orange fell from her face and her hands.
"Ha." She gasped, watching those motes of light sparkle into nothing before her down turned face.

Aegle sat back, legs curled beneath her, hands hanging at her sides. Her vision blurred, the pounding in her head grew worse, and a quiet sound finally pierced through the roaring in her ears. A shrill, urgent trilling. Blinking hard, trying to make her eyes focus, Aegle searched for the source of that annoying noise. It was coming from her wrist.
"Oh." With more effort than she could have imagined, Aegle turned her hand so that she could see her watch. From its face, flashing red on black, there was a little drawing of a heart and a cable. The cable was broken.
"Oh." Aegle couldn't think. She tried to blink the sense back into her head, but her eyelids had grown so heavy that she was only able to get her eyes half open after. The blurry shadows were crawling in from the corners now, turning her narrow view of the world dark and fuzzy and indistinct. She tried to understand what had happened, what had been happening, ever since she had been thrown, but couldn't. Thoughts were as dust, falling through her fingers as she tried to grab them, and her hands were bad for grabbing at the best of times. Swallowing, mouth gone shockingly dry, she tried in vain to puzzle it all through.
At last, as her eyes slipped closed, she found the words.
"_{Don't feel so good...}"
And she swayed, and her head dropped, and her shoulders sagged, and, very slowly, she tipped over onto her side.

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total - 5,471