MelonHead

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

The Mech swivelled as it took another two large lunging backsteps distancing it further from the entrance of the cave. His rifle never fired, Slimy having disappeared from view somehow, so like a blind man with a guide stick the Mech swept the floor in front of it from left to right with the heavy barrel of its rifle with enough force to kill a man. Unfortunately Slimy was almost impossible to hit with bullets, so hitting it with anything less than rounds was probably going to be unlikely. After completing its sweep the Mech looked around and presumably didn’t see anything, though if he did the situation would be far different.

Perhaps a second after the sweep Higan had a deep sense of foreboding, and with ammo conservation being of little concern he let out a short sharp burst with the chain-gun, positioned as it was the rounds should clear the top of his Mech again, just in case Slimy had snuck up to finish the job.

With literally no information as to where the creature was he could do little other than scour the area in front of the Mech with its remaining vision and remain vigilant. The rifle was re-levelled and the Mech still. If he couldn’t find Slimy in front of himself after this long it had either found some escape route or was on or behind the Mech again. Amazing how fast it ran despite the injuries it had sustained.

what kind of armor

My favourite armor is armour.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

Finished my essay, made my edit, recovered from bout of melancholy, ready to kill aliens again.

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

It would still require Gigue to effectively strike over his own body, Sigurd strafed to Gigue's right when he was in mid-air, so unless Gigue first ensured he compensated for that side-step before running forward he would be approaching from Sigurd's right and attacking his shield in his left hand, at least as far as I understand the scene. Unless he was aiming for the very far right edge of Sigurd's shield, which wasn't really the vibe I got.

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

Your character struck across his body with his left arm by necessity, where-as the right could thrust forward at the shield quickly the left would be painfully obvious. Not that it matters, even if your character had just stood there with his arms beside himself Sigurd still would have pulled back, as ranged combat gives him the advantage at the moment.

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

<Snipped quote by MelonHead>

My impression was that the step back was initiated as a reaction to the strike, not prior to it. Guess that's why the chronology is off.

@Vordak

The step back is in response to your character stepping forward and winding up his arm, but it's the pull back of the shield that saw the attack hit thin air. It's very possible for Sigurd to step back, pull his shield back, and feint an axe throw in one movement, in fact, the act of pulling back the shield would make it easier. Give it a try.

Therefore I'd expect your character to be pretty much in front of Sigurd and nearly wide open as he feinted with the axe, if he had loosed the weapon and your character relied simply upon speed to move out the way it likely would have hit him.

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

It's still a chronology of your character, compared to Sigurd:

jumping, landing, turning, stepping forward, throwing out a palm strike, stepping forward again, compared to
throwing, stepping sideways, stepping back, feinting axe throw.

The axe throw feint is launched at the same time Sigurd pulls back his shield and your character throws out a palm strike, so I seriously doubt his entire body has somehow moved out the way of the axe's possible flight path by the time that feint happens unless Gigue's palm strike was actually some kind of running move, regardless I seriously doubt Gigue is so quick that he's beside Sigurd before he can shake his arm, as that is your follow up to the palm strike which was aimed at Sigurd's outstretched shield, and therefore some distance away.

Not that it matters very much, but your character isn't really remarked to be exceedingly agile or fast, if he were I would have to ask how it was fair that he also has strength greater than every other character in the tournament and an infallible magic shield to boot.

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

His enemy charged forward like a common brawler, seemingly without real finesse. Passing footwork had brought many a man to his doom in the past, it was reckless. Sigurd side-stepped again, this time rightward, maintaining distance and continuing to strafe the man by moving anti-clockwise. His move carried him a good three feet from the man’s eventual stopping point, and almost brought Sigurd into direct line with both Gigue and the stream behind him. Sigurd had looked at the terrain he was fighting in carefully, he knew how far he could back up before he ran into a tree and how much space he had to work with. Surprisingly he had found that thus far he could move with more agility than his foe, which suggested he did indeed rely upon brute strength, though he couldn’t keep avoiding him in this specific fashion forever. Eventually he might get smart and do something to cut off an obvious escape route such as the one he had seized.

Fortunately the man had approached on his left side, where the shield stood to protect him from attack, he turned slightly and regained his form, left foot forward, right back, the shield at an angle half a foot from his body. The man would no doubt charge again, Sigurd took another half step backwards perhaps simultaneous to the man’s own, though a slight bunching in his right leg would suggest he did not mean to stay there for long. He shook the axe with menace.

Black Mountain Tournament: Sigurd vs Gigue

He walked off the line of attack and flanked Sigurd, so yeah, he does give no shits about a throw that would miss. Plus, why would Sigurd throw the axe at point-blank anyways?

@Vordak

Because it would be really hard to miss? Lol. I thought your character wasn't supposed to be that fast anyway, transitioning from a mid-range palm strike to apparently being within striking range of Sigurd's body in the time it takes Sigurd to literally shake his right arm is pretty fast.

Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

As my previous post has been overruled and no longer makes sense I'll be editing it accordingly, you can expect my post to be there when I say so here.