[center]
[color=fff200]Karin Level 6: 43/60[/color] 
Location:  Quarantine Valley
Word Count: 1,109
Points Gained: 2 
New EXP Balance--- 
[indent][color=fff200]Karin Level 6: 45/60 [/color][/indent] [/center]

	As the others attacked the guardsman, Karin knew it was up to her to finish off the man in charge of protecting this room. The most powerful of them all. Fitting, of course- otherwise it wouldn’t even come close to a challenge. ‘The Closer’. 

	Karin descended from her spot in the ceiling as the others began their attacks. He struck her as a competent and brave leader when upon hearing the commotion he prepared his sword and went to intervene. Karin dropped from the ceiling. 

	[color=fff200]”Alas,”[/color] Karin said, attaching her hook to Charles’ back. He span and severed the line, turning to face her. [color=fff200]”You’re much too busy losing to me to assist your allies. It’s not too late to surrender.”[/color] Karin said, hoping he would turn it down.

	“Hmph. You’re under arrest.” He obliged her and stepped forward, sword out. Karin swatted the blade aside and returned with a kick, that Charles dodged. Sweeping his blade out to the side, he surged forward and began swinging. 

	[color=fff200]”Hup!”[/color] Karin pulled back fast, the blade slicing through the air. Palms out, she ducked and side stepped swing after swing. With a shower of sparks he cleaved through the metal in the wall, bringing his blade around towards Karin’s shoulder. Karin raised her bare arm and met the blade with a clash of blue. Charles raised an eyebrow and Karin smirked. They exchanged strikes before Karin once again was put on the defensive, Charles’s strikes fast and strong. 

	A private, Kou Kaufman, went to help his leader from behind, preparing to cast some Hallucikinesis to disrupt her ability to fight. It might have worked, but Sandalphon fired a sniper shot from the hidden rafters that forced him back into cover, unaware that such a threat even existed until that very moment.

	Karin spend some V-meter, gliding past a strike and elbowing Charles away, giving her a knock down she used to advance. He surprised her with a sudden burst of speed as soon as he got up, slashing her several times. Karin landed with a shout. [color=fff200]”Simple.”[/color] She said afterwards. So. Charles offensive. Karin had ways around that. At this point he was starting to figure out her defensive patterns, the slashes coming dangerously close to striking something other than her arm, leg, or air.

	Karin predicted his next horizontal swipe and stopped his high tech greatsword dead in its tracks with her palms, trapping it like a vice. With a flick of her wrists the greatsword was nearly knocked out of his hands. She advanced with a series of elbows, hitting him into a wall so hard it dented. He swung again, but she was faster and had momentum palming his ribs and then chin. [color=fff200]”Tenko!”[/color]  She shouted as he dented the wall again. 

	Now she forced him to block. Karin baited his sword low with a snappy kick towards his knees, and then elegantly rotated her entire body to bring her foot down on his head. [color=fff200]”Weak!”[/color]
	
	Karin reached to snatch Charles’ wrist and then shoulder struck him into the wall. He didn’t seem happy about this. Karin had detected his weakness: Charles was probably used to overwhelming offense with the support of his teammates. Being, well, a Closer. But instead he was facing off against a duelist who had the support of her own teammate. Another semi-aimed sniper shot from the busy Sandalphon kept the unlucky private behind cover.

	Karin caught another strike, wincing as the blade scraped against her arm. Charles kneed her in the gut. [color=fff200]”Oof!”[/color] As he raised his blade, she fully sent it with an EX [color=fff200]”Ressen Ha!”[/color] Her palms became a buzz saw that lifted him into the air and then slammed him back down.

	“Gah!”

	Karin wasn’t letting him go. After striking him a few more times he got his back away from the wall and swung. She blocked and used her V-Reversal, a normally defensive technique, to shove him away right back into another corner. Charles dashed to the side, but she predicted where he would end up and zipped forward to meet up. [color=fff200]”Yah!”[/color] She balanced on one palm and slammed her feet into his ankle. He tripped and fell. As Karin rose he surged up from ground with a stab. Karin stepped into it, moving her head to the side as the blade moved between her head and shoulders. Moving her front hand upward, she parried his wrists up. With a resounding slam, she buried him into the metal wall with her palm. His greatsword clattered to the ground and she kicked it away, victorious.

	[color=fff200]”An admirable effort. But we caught you unawares, today.”[/color] Karin mused. Reaching for his belt, she plucked the keycard they needed and held it between her index and middle finger, smug. 

	Pvt. Kou Kaufman peeked around the corner, took a breath, and then pointed his rifle out to Karin. He risked getting shot by a sniper to do it, and fortunately Sandalphon was distracted at the time. Karin back dashed to side, turning her attention to the private as plasma fire ripped across the walls. Zipping back and forth, she kept an eye on the barrel of his weapon and moved with impressive speed that made her difficult to hit. 

	If the battle had gone another way, he would have earned a promotion for this move. He used his illusion psychic power to create a false stream of plasma rounds from the barrel of his gun. Karin jumped over it and he snapped his rifle to her, blasting her out of the air. Karin landed with a grunt, her belly having a few lines of smoke coming off of it from the heat of the plasma rounds. Karin rolled to the side as more bullets struck the floor. She fired out her grappling hook and pulled him in close, throwing off his aim and sending him stumbling towards her. From his hand materialized a grenade that he threw at her feet. A clever ploy, but unless he possessed a grenade that teleported into his palm, she knew it wasn’t real. Karin span and crushed his chest armor with a powerful straight kick. Then she brought her foot down like an axe onto his plasma rifle, rendering it useless. Karin looked around to make sure nobody saw the fact that she got shot, and she dusted the scorch marks off her midriff to remove the evidence. 

	Both of her foes defeated, Karin held the keycard aloft, victoriously, and moved to rejoin her allies at the entrance to the next room. Not before attaching Charles and Kaufman to their respective places with her grappling hook, locking them in place now that they were too weak to resist. 

	[color=fff200]”Splendid work everyone. When we’re all ready, please, do allow me the honors.”[/color] She swiped the keycard and would be more than happy to lead the way deeper into the facility.