[h2]Jennifer White[/h2]

It was frustrating that her feint had been anticipated, but that could be dealt with. More annoying was that the girl had clearly taken the hint that the glow could be dangerous and reacted completely the wrong way; Jen had been after a defensive attitude rather than a counter-attack--a ranged one, obviously. When it came to the abilities of Divine Gears, she simply couldn't compete on equal ground.

There was no time to think of a strategy to overcome the beam of light by the time it was launched and all that was left was to react on instinct. For most people, being confronted by a magical swordbeam would be an incentive to dodge or find some obstacle to use as a shield. The British girl wasn't that sort of person: having invested in an aggressive start, she was going to carry this all the way through and proclaimed a single word in English: "[i]Cut![/i]"

The golden radiance refocused into twin blades of golden light, overlaying the sword's own already sharp edges just in time for her slash to intercept the crackling blue arc. It wasn't cut in two, disappointingly, or destroyed... but it [i]was[/i] blocked and pushed off of its hazardous course. The clear ground between the two girls shrunk to nothing as Jen continued to be the aggressor, turning the deflection into a nasty return slash that, had this not been a mock fight, would have carried serious potential to cut from shoulder to navel.

She [i]had[/i] to keep this as a swordfight.

[hr]

[h2]Tachibana Kaede[/h2]

"Well, I can't say that I'm too excited for the tournament on my behalf. Probably going to bring javelins this year," the armless girl said, thinking back to her defeats in the previous two years. With environments that didn't lend themselves to improvised projectiles and ranged opponents with far too many tricks for keeping away, they had devolved into a battle of attrition each time. "Heracles would probably manifest to berate me if I tried to skip out, and I can't let the school down."

It would be rather bad to let down the patron God of Athletes by refusing to participate in a tournament such as this one, and risking her pact (or at least pissing off the deity behind it) would be a great way to be even more armless than normal. A cloud that rather resembled an angry face made her wonder if that was some sort of signal for considering the idea...