Task Force Buster 3[IC] Chapter 1: A New Start.

[Shamitako]

Katsuo frowned slightly at Dave's response. Of course he didn't have a cannon, Katsuo had been attempting to break the ice with a joke, but that had clearly gone over the deadbeat's head. But despite the obvious disdain in the man's voice, he had given Katsuo a full rundown of his abilities. Because of this, Katsuo shoved the anger welling up inside him back down and made one more attempt to be amicable.

"Well, if you're pure defense, I don't think we can pit you one-on-one against any of their mages..." He mused aloud.

Brunel seemed set on facing Fukui, but Katsuo wasn't sure that would work out in this scenario.

"I have a better idea." He said, mostly to Leivinia, "Since Dave can't function well one on one, we need to find a way to work around that. So I suggest we let Fukui be and rely on Dave's shielding to protect us from his attacks. Then you and I can focus on single combat against the other two."

[Yamiju]

Jin had already set up his device and Barrier Jacket. His Barrier Jacket consisted of a black and red vest over a black shirt with three red belts. A pair of black gloves with a red shell on the backs of the hands. and a pair of black hakama and steel-toed red boots. He hefted his device Bloodscythe in sword mode over his shoulder.

"So what's the plan?" Jin asked Liliana and Shou.

[Chevaleresse]

"Well, um, I was hoping you guys could try and keep their melee combatants off of me while I focus on bombardment. I would say that Caster and I are pretty good at nailing down targets," he said hefting his Device over one shoulder as he spoke, "but I won't be able to do that if Leivinia is in my face. I would say that Dave would be annoying too, with his shields, but he doesn't seem to be the most reliable combatant. . ." He said this with a bemused glance at the man, who seemed to have finally regained consciousness but appeared none too happy about his situation.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Liliana stepped forward, standing with her back to Shou, facing the opposing team, a hint of a smile beginning to form on her face as her blood raced in anticipation of the duel. Particularly, she kept an eye on Leivinia. The girl, from what Liliana had seen on the balcony, seemed to be a speed-based fighter. This would be very educational.

"If you don't mind, sir, let me handle defence. My fighting style relies more on counterattacks than offensives, so a protective position will play to my advantages."

[Bfroger6]

Listening to the others was a sore bother to Dave in that sleepy state. Still, getting all worked up around the jerkface being a jerk actually helped him wake up a little. Anyways, he could see he got the jerk jerked up with his own jerky response, but he seemed to be trying his best not to lash out and continue the argument. Wait, Fukui... Fukui... Which one was that? The kid? Ha! Dave snorted and grinned.

"Sure, I'll take the kid on! I'd enjoy it way more if it was you I'd have to fight, but sure, I ain't complaining if I get to just stand around and do my thing! You just make sure to kick the other two out of the game before I run out of fuel, though the chances are the kid's gonna wear himself out way before me, haha! Anyways, he's the one with wings, right? That just makes it easier."

Dave's stomach grunted again.

[Hiss13]

"So we'll save Shou for last then. I'm fine with that." Leivinia nodded in agreement. "In that case, you can pick which of the other two you would like to focus on taking out first, Katsuo. I'm perfectly fine going against either of them so feel free to play to whatever your strengths are."

With the others being close combatants, she had no real preferences. If Katsuo felt more comfortable taking on Liliana, Leivinia would have no problems taking on Jin. She just had to make sure that she was not knocked out before she could take Shou out of the sky. That's all that mattered.

[Chevaleresse]

"So, uh, Jin, what are you planning on doing? Dave won't be a problem - I have spells that are specialized for breaking down barriers - but whoever isn't engaged with Liliana is going to make it hard for me to bombard properly." His expression was, as usual, unreadable, though if one was paying attention his breathing would have seemed almost too measured. In, and out, in a rhythm that lacked even natural variance.

[Yamiju]

Jin looked at Shou. "I'll take on Leivinia." Jin said holding Bloodscythe in a reverse grip. He kept his eyes on Leivinia and was ready for battle.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Yamiju

[rustytengo]

As you where standing ready a Chrono's voice sounded over the training field.

"Well it looks like both sides are ready to begin."He said with a laugh.

"The First Mock Battle of Task Force Buster 3 will begin in..."

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"....

a bell rings singling the start of the battle

((and well have fun fighting each other))

[Chevaleresse]

Immediately upon the bell ringing, Shou crouched slightly, then kicked upwards off the ground, moving upward and backward away from the opposing team. He flew in a smooth arc, which made him easy to track - but the enemy team lacked a bombardment mage, and not having to dodge about meant he could land his own shots with much greater ease. He set his sights on Leivinia first, taking aim and beginning to gather energy for a shot.

[Hiss13]

Leivinia watched as the other aerial mage immediately took to the sky. But that no longer mattered. If he was going to try bombardment during a team battle, there were ways to avoid it. The first was simply getting in the defensive but that kind of situation was hard to get out of. The next was to charge in and hope to hit before the bombardment fired off. However, that too was never a smart move.

But, there's another working strategy in that case. She smirked as she thought.

She let her friendly demeanor drop as small blue wings began to appear at her ankles. As her body raised itself, she immediately charged towards Liliana at high speed aiming to smash the edge of the blade into her wrist.

[Code: PIRULUK]

The corners of Liliana's mouth turned upward ever so slightly as Leivinia charged her. Despite Jin's intention to take her on, it seemed Liliana would get her desired matchup, after all.

As Leivinia's weapon was about to impact her, Liliana quickly brought her body low to the ground and to the side, using her left hand to support Eleganz as she caught her opponent's weapon on the flat of its blade, redirecting it along the length of the rapier and away from her, sparks flying as the two weapons moved along each other. As their weapons disconnected, Liliana used the inertia from the opposed motion of their weapons to arc down her blade and initiated a quick stab at Leivinia's exposed back.

[Hiss13]

Leivinia blow had been deflected quite easily. She was less stunned at that fact and more stunned at the fact that it had been done with a rapier, of all weapons. But, she had zero time to let any fascination get to her as she was being thrusted at from behind.

However, flight always provided an extra degree of freedom that grounded mages did not have. As long as she took care to not put herself into a situation where she had too high inertia, she would always have room for movements and rotations. She had forcefully rotated her body such that it became parallel to the rapier's blade to dodge the attack by a hair before she turned her body again to face Liliana with another slash aimed straight at her chest.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Liliana groaned inwardly when Leivinia handily dodged her attack. Fighting fliers was always annoying.

As Leivinia struck out at Liliana's chest, Liliana channeled the momentum from her stab into a forward dive, pushing off the ground with her free hand and performing several acrobatic flips to gain distance, landing facing Leivinia, Eleganz pointed forward, body crouched low. She narrowed her eyes as she waited for her adversary's next move.

[Bfroger6]

Dave streched as he watched the battle begin. Geee, he would never be able to keep up with them! Good thing he was a defense support knight. In any case, his job was making sure the kid with wings wouldn't hit any of his teammates. He just had to place shields and barriers around them when the time came, easy. And not only that, but the kid would never try shooting a bombardment at anyone as long as they kept the distance between themselves and their foes reasonable, as he wouldn't risk hitting his own teammates. So long as those conditions were met, he'd stay the main target of the kid's bombardments, and anything less than a big goddamn laser of energy he was confident he could stop. For now, charging one cartridge would be enough just to put some balance to his spells.

Beysridd dinged like some old arcade game as its inner mechanics started moving and the outer armor layer shot back and forth, launching the pin into the cartridge as it exploded and activated. The device brimmed with energy, safely contained, as it awaited Dave to command it.

In the meantime, Dave kept his eyes on Shou, and taking note that he was suspiciously tilting his rifle towards Levinia, as he leaned his head back against his hands and began to whistle a random happy tune that would help take his mind off his crumbling stomach. His device was ready and so was he, as much as he could be so early in the morning.

[Yamiju]

With the other occupied Jin decided to go after Dave. He charged forward after Dave with his sword in a reverse grip. The gem on the back of his prosthetic hand glowed dimly. He jumped and attempted to slam Bloodscythe onto Dave.

[Bfroger6]

"Hmm? What the..!?" Dave hadn't even noticed the new guy starting to run towards him at first, he was too preoccupied staring up at Shou, imagining himself eating a chicken for lunch later that day, since the kid had wings which, of course, were bound to invoke some birdiful associations, right? Oh, maybe he could have chicken for breakfast! He was starving anyways.

In any case, he only really noticed Jin when he jumped up at him with his sword in hand, which brings us to the "What the..!?" moment. Dave, being somewhat- okay, a lot of a slowpoke, barely managed to think of a spell to cast and barely even begun raising his hand to defend himself when his device blinged again and a orange belkan magic circle conjured itself up around his feet. From the tip of the armored fingers of his right hand, a barrier came into being and dispersed almost immediately upon contact with the sword, releasing all of the precious mana Dave had fed it with, pushing both Dave and Jin into opposite sides, boosted by the cartridge he had just friggin' wasted on nothing, apparently! Stupid red-black dressed whoever this kid was! Now Shou was free! Dave's thoughts overbrimmed with a sudden outburst of anger as he lost his balance after having successfully managed to deflect Jin's attack (like a pro) and he plumped backwards, softly upon his butt.

T'was one of the upsides of being round.

Looking up, ready to block this guy again if need be, but trying to pay at least a little attention to Shou at the same time, teeth clenched, he pushed himself back up as quickly as he could, as Beysridd's cogs began turning again and it flosked the empty cartridge out of its system and onto the street-er, floor-hexagonal floaty thingies (???) whatever this was, along with quickly cooling itself up. Damn, how many cartridges did he have stored inside anyways? Felt like he hadn't checked on his device in a goddamn while.

[Shamitako]

Everyone flung into action so fast, Katsuo probably could have joined them, but he wanted to see how everyone spread out first. Unfortunately, he took a bit too long with that and Jin moved to attack Dave before he could react. Scolding himself for not being more attentive, he dashed over towards where Dave was. Seeing that he wasn't going to reach melee range in time to intercept Jin's next attack, he instead raised Gwaedu and pointed her directly at Jin. Gwaedu glowed scarlet for a moment and a magic circle formed under Katsuo's feet, it collapsed inwards as a wide beam lanced out towards Jin.

"Crimson Burst." Gwaedu said matter-of-factly.

(OOC: Crimson burst is strong but low-range beam attack that Katsup uses for zoning opponents)

[Chevaleresse]

Leivinia was too close to Liliana for Shou's taste. He didn't doubt his ability to hit a target, but the shot was a bit more risk than he was willing to accept. Since no one seemed to be bothering him, he continued on his simple arc and readied a shot. A magic circle formed at the end of Hyperion Caster, then spun clockwise as it traveled backward down toward the base of the device, where it stopped, awaiting his command. He leveled the barrel at Katsuo, then gave the command: "Flare Lance." The circle disappeared as a straight beam of greenish light darted outward toward the fighter on the ground.

[Yamiju]

Jin skidded back and brushed himself off. He started running towards Dave to attack again, when he had to quickly throw up a barrier to protect himself form Katsuo's attack.

"Two against one huh? I might have to show more than I planned to." He said as the beam subsided. He loaded a Cartridge and stabbed his sword into the ground.

"Crimson Wave!" Blood-Scythe said as a Wave of red magic headed toward Dave.

[Bfroger6]

Oh, look, the little birdie decided to show its talons. And not only that, but his aim was directed at the Jerkface of all people. Hah! He'd so enjoy allowing this beam to blast away its target, but eh... The Jerkface was still kind of having his back, so he still needed him.

A cartridge burst as Dave's device slammed again and a shield appeared in the orange light of the magic circle from Dave's open palm, straight in the trajectory of the beam. And, it would've stayed like that and blocked the attack... Had something not interfered.

Dave yelped in sudden pain as the red light from the magic enveloped him. Look, Dave was slow, like we've established already. Even if he had noticed the other guy attacking, he still wouldn't have had it in his to react in time. The attack connected, launching Dave off his feet and rolling several meters on the ground as some dust raised itself. The shield guarding Jerkface dissipated and, for a moment, Dave was too flinched to to do anything except lay on the ground, breathing heavily. He was still concious, of course. Not gonna let such a measly attack knock him out immediately. His body was used to receiving strikes.

(OOC: Shou's attack didn't get blocked. Whoops.)

[Hiss13]

Liliana had not distanced herself too far away. She was still within range. She was likely waiting for Leivinia to come in and attack her again.

"But things won't go that easily for you." She muttered. "Spark. Lightning Blade Form: Right."

[understood, milady.]

The blade in her right hand had opened up down the middle as a long stream of crackling blue energy came from the base of the blade.

[spark Slice.]

The girl waved the blade horizontally and a curved blue lightning energy wave that hurdled straight towards Liliana.

[Code: PIRULUK]

Liliana cocked an eyebrow at her adversary's attempt at a ranged attack. A horizontal cutting wave? If it had been a traditional beam then it might have been a problem, but attacks which had magical energy spread out over such a width were easily dealt with. Her stance shifted slightly as she pulled the trigger concealed behind the handguard, loading in a cartridge. Eleganz hummed slightly as its blade was filled with magical energy.

"Eleganz. Umleiten."

"Da."

At the moment where the wave of energy was about to hit her, she brought Eleganz down and up along the same axis. As she did so, the magical energy coating her blade worked to push and redirect the incoming energy from the point of impact, instead sending said energy away to the sides, leaving Liliana unharmed. But to the casual observer, it would look like she had sliced the attack in two, even though the sum total of the energy contained within was unchanged. She swung her sword to the side for aesthetics' sake, then returned it to the ready position, winking at Leivinia with a condescending smile.