Raineh Daze

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

Being stabbed hurt, but it was a familiar thing. As soon as the spear was withdrawn, Tyaethe could already feel the wound healing of its own volition, shadows bubbling over the injury and restoring it to smooth skin even as the magically-conjured armour regenerated. A hit and run tactic like that was hardly an obstacle unless the one behind it wizened up and heavily improved their aim, rather than deciding that her waist was somehow an instant kill.

If this had been some other time, it would have been exhilarating. Even if this was just a random nobody hiding behind his associates rather than fighting her face to face, at least they showed the strength and skill to put up a challenge.

But... those things. She wasn't close enough to hear Clarice's explanation, nor intimately familiar with exactly what they were--at least off the top of her head--but their very presence in this location set her teeth on edge, a crawling feeling of wrongness that made it clear that they must be destroyed as soon as possible. The Goddesses demanded it.

And she had to deal with this overconfident spearman. Well, if he was going to hide, then she'd just have to make it clear exactly how bad it was to engage, right? Scare off the meatshields a little. They'd already seen her shrug off being impaled, so what was a little more injury? So far, she had at least presented an attempt to fight normally, but now... now they were in the way.

The first one reacted surprisingly quickly. It was impressive in its own right, her own surge forwards and his reaction carving a chunk out of the armour, and her own hip. Not that it mattered, now the vampire was in their line, freeing one hand from her sword to grab his head and shove.

It would probably be better if nobody looked too closely at his head later. Or the head of the man to his left, where the two had collided.

On her other side, the unsurprisingly freaked-out looking boar had taken the consideration that if stabbing and cutting her didn't work, maybe smashing her shoulder in with a mace would? It was a pretty smart move, she might have admitted, if it weren't for the fact that he had just seen the damage heal.

For his oversight, her once again uninjured arm swung, liberating his arm from his body. Not a threat, now, and soon enough he'd be dead.

Getting stabbed from behind, aimed slightly higher but still nowhere accurate for her heart, was another nuisance. As was the fact that somehow the boars behind her still thought to present a front with which the spearman could hide behind.

"Get out here, coward!"

Advent of the Dawn — A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP (Reboot)

Jennifer Whittemore

It would have been way too easy to focus entirely on what was going on below her and miss whatever was going on above. So ''trivial'' to fall into the human trap of not looking up, then get taken by surprise. Especially when you were used to being the one attacking from above and looking down on groundbound opposition. But despite everything about her, Jennifer's reflexes and awareness were still plenty good, and when even the flicker of something from above came into her peripheral version, she moved.

It was a good thing too, coming up well out of the laser's path. How dare this Warped be doing that! She was the aerial specialist here, and she didn't have any sort of cool strafing ability like that! Plus, if she did, Jennifer would try way harder to actually track whatever she was fighting and not just blow up anything and everything that got in the way!

Though it would be really neat to be able to clear a big line of Warped like that without having to descend, maybe that was something she could hope for...

But fine, if it was an aerial battle it wanted, it was an aerial battle it would get! It was huge, and powerful, but she had speed, and if it thought it could win a dogfight against her, then the birdmonster had another thing coming--

Oh, punchy wanted to take it out with her? Good, good! "I'll try to pin it down, you take it out!"

After all, there had to be agility on her side, and if it was constantly twisting to try and get her with that laser or its talons, it would be forced to give up its own dodging to try and get a lock! If not diving to find a way to get an angle. Because of course the flying Frame Pilot's instinct was to climb even higher than the bird monster and dive for its back. If she just had to keep attacking from above and literally push it blast by blast down... that was good too.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

Akira winced at the sudden discharge, and she most definitely did not whimper. She wasn't that bad against pain or--no, wait, yes she was, this was why her role in missions was preferably to stay well away from combat wherever it was possible. On top of being pretty much harmless, obviously, but the bit where even tripping and bruising really hurt? No, that wasn't any good at all.

Still, the girl gave a shrug, "I prefer to do the reports first. Shiro-chan's resting, anyway, and if I was just going to look at my phone it doesn't matter when I do that..."

Plus, it wasn't like they had a big, thriving culture of operatives, here. Between Emi, who'd get expressions at the weirdest of times; the boss, who she'd been unable to turn down on those few times the woman had decided that some special occasion called for drinks; and her,... well, not exactly a group with a ton in common, or the most social one. Hard to get together and do much when three of you would just keep to yourselves and finish working first, wasn't it?

Advent of the Dawn — A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP (Reboot)

Jennifer Whittemore

Enemies, enemies... what was she best off dealing with? The pilot could only wonder for a few seconds as she hung above the battlefield, currently quite out of the reach of immediate danger before diving in. Why not go for the biggest and nastiest ones? If she stopped those from ambling forwards, then the others would be able to fight through the weaker ones to join her in any case. And they definitely didn't want to let the things lurch and wobble their way into range of soldiers, fighting them there might get other people hit anyway!

Descending abruptly to hover in front of one of the things, her attack was immediate: a vague jab, definitely something like a punch, but without much in the way of good form. Not that it mattered, the gentle tap more than close enough range to a bright blast of energy right into the hard-to-reach face. Not enough to destroy the head in one go, sadly, and it was already swinging, but Albion's unparalleled mobility just let her smoothly pull to the side, throwing the other hand in another quick jab, redirecting it and rocking it, and for all that it was faster than a shambling corpse, it still only had two arms and couldn't turn to keep up as quickly as she could gracefully drift around it, throwing punch after punch--and blast after blast--all the while.

It was almost no time at all before the repeated blasts finally broke through, making the head pop rather... grossly, and Jennifer gave the body a little kick--itself with another blast--to make sure that it fell away from the line before pulling back up to pick another target. Ah, the freedom of height, and there wasn't anything these lines of warped could do even if a few of them were starting to notice as she selected another one of the larger warped and dived in again...

This was actually pretty fun. Was it meant to be?

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

Her particular engagement was getting... annoying? Annoying felt right. The threat presented by the Boars engaging her wasn't something noteworthy, but they were taking it very carefully, and had just enough co-ordination to prevent an easy victory. Part of this was obviously on her own approach, a little more subtlety or finesse could swing it. She was still confident in winning this battle of attrition, their synchronisation and endurance would fail long before she couldn't manage such straightforward attacks.

But... it was annoying.

"You're watching my sword far too much," the vampire murmured, an idea coming to mind. With her current approach, that was actually effective, but...

The most basic magical spell, as Fionn had been shown, was simply to generate light. Pushing that out a little further onto a sword or the like that you held? Well, that was trivial, it was barely any different. But for Reon's devoted clergy, it was easy to go a step further, to offer up a prayer--to cleanse Mayon's holy site of its vile intrusion--and make true sunlight. And for Tyaethe, the idea of putting out only a reasonable amount of light was barely an option.

The outcome was rather similar to the noon sun being trapped within the blade. There was a small degree of warmth, but most notable were the blatant shadows cast--and for Tyaethe's opponents, the fact that they had gone from watching an ordinary blade in near-darkness to gazing at something close to the sun itself. Only for a few seconds, until the flow of magic was cut off--but those few seconds were more than enough.

And now she needed new opponents. Fortunately, it seemed her trick had drawn more attention, and the Boars were more than eager to swarm the enemy amongst them.

---

Anisse Ganzberg

Veilena might boast that she only needed her bodyguard, but that was a bit of an overestimation. It also hurt a little to not be acknowledged--sure, the black knight might be the most obvious one guarding her, but Fleuri and Renar were doing their part, so was the captain, and so was she.

Anisse wasn't the most visually distinctive of the knights, her hair was mousey and her eyes almost the same shade. What she did have was a little more experience over the newer recruits, and a welcoming demeanour. Even though Candaeln had its kitchens, she was exactly the type of person who you'd want to offer you a drink, or fresh-baked cake.

Which made it always slightly jarring to see such a warm figure in the battlefield, face hardened into a cold mask, and wielding a spear with alarming precision. For instance, against an opponent whose neck wasn't sufficiently protected, with barely a reaction...

Well, people tended to not live long when a spear had torn out their throat.

The Lion's Banner: A Fire Emblem-Inspired Anime Fantasy RP

Gisela

Amidst the chaos and clamour of the ambush, Gisela stood as a little island of calm. Not that this was too hard--her magic didn't contribute much to a rescue operation until the fighting was over and a medic was needed. Nor could she be said to be in enough danger to warrant concern.

The ring of faintly silvery light surrounding her made the safety rather obvious. Of course, completely enclosed by a barrier like this, she wasn't in the slightest able to contribute... which was, again, expected. And if someone got through and started attacking it, the Lions would probably kill them before it cracked, so why not simply stand here and maintain it?

Maybe she could go find some dying enemies and save them? It wouldn't be too hard to take someone prisoner when they were only somewhat injured rather than on the brink of death. It would be nice to have fewer bodies to dispose of afterwards, too. Hm, but how would the knights take that, it could be seen as undoing all of their hard work, if not outright treacherous... what a hard choice this was.

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

"Honda Akira," the small girl contributed, slowly edging away from the side of the room and towards the desk, "I've been here... well, longer than anyone else, I think. Even the boss and Shiro-chan joined later." She was pretty confident that even the ancillary staff had also changed during that time? It was pretty unusual for someone to stick to one department in Tokyo quite this long, getting promoted or moving around the DDF would often take you to some other office. But at some point that would have left Branch 247 with a critical firepower deficit on top of its other woes, so she never got the offer. She wanted to stay here anyway.

She grabbed the cat's hand and gave a tug... not really enough to move her, Akira definitely wasn't strong enough or forceful enough for that one, but enough to give a signal. "Get off there, we'll all get in trouble if someone starts using contracts to keep order."

Or was that only if it was her that had to step in? It was a pretty uncommon situation, the handbook wasn't that comprehensive...

@Rune_Alchemist@Quartz@LuckyBlackCat@Emeth@RolePlayerRoxas

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Was suicidal overconfidence a recruiting requirement for mercenaries, or was it merely the unpleasant ones? It should have been easy to tell who they were and realise that backing off was the right idea. Yes, yes, they brought some nasty little spirits along, but their physical bodies weren't that impervious to harm. The Boars didn't have anywhere near the numerical superiority to consider taking this fight. Even if Tyaethe hadn't been there, she had enough confidence in the rest.

And the best way to stop them from getting to the girl--one who would have to reminded of the importance of not trying to recover ancient evils without telling the people who need to guard it--was obviously to attack. Or, the best way she could contribute. Break any attempt at a cohesive line, force them to fight the paladin in their midst...

Being armoured in plate was a bit of an impediment to her, but hardly a lasting one. Tyaethe was a dragonslayer, and a hunter of any lesser beast beside--some mercenaries with bits of metal bolted to them were hardly going to slow her down for long.

Most would attribute it to vampiric strength. After all, she could heave around stone statues several times her size without any difficulty from its weight, only the teensy problem of how to hold the thing and having short, twiggy arms. Surely, someone with enough brute force to move statuary and toss grown men around like sacks of flour would have no difficulty dealing with armoured opponents? But if that was it, then most of the damage would be through smashing and bludgeoning, using overwhelming force to pound her unfortunate enemies into submission. Her blade was no sharper than any other, for all that it wouldn't dull; it was still ultimately a tool for cutting flesh and muscle, not a butcher's cleaver or a glorified pickaxe.

Anyone that knew enough about bladework to get that far would attribute it to some sort of technique, then. If you learned and studied enough, corrected every slight error in your form, then you too could achieve the physical mastery necessary to single out a weak point in the armour and cut through it with ease. The paladin was certain that this was a component of how Lilette dealt with her enemies so effortlessly, but it was only a part of the whole. Tyaethe wasn't singling out weakpoints, or using some form perfected to the point that it alone was instrumental in cutting through steel.

Confidence. It was absolute confidence in your ability that she felt was key, and it didn't matter what path you took to get there. You could constantly strive for improvement and identifying flaws until you were sure that it should work, could work, and then reinforce it through further successes until you forgot why you ever doubted its possibility in the first place. If you were egotistical enough in the first place, had the ability to keep up with anybody that challenged you long enough to swing such a foolish attack, it might even come as naturally as breathing. For herself, there might be a ring of truth in the idea of her strength being a factor--as a young woman, Tyaethe had cut her teeth on slaying monsters, challenging them blow for blow. If she could cut through mighty boars and enraged wyverns, why should a man's armour be any different?

The counter to that was an accusation that this was the mage in her speaking, that she actually used mana to do the same. As if she was the only one to pull this off, or who had ever considered it. Sescille could have done it all the same, and she was forever swapping weapons, with nothing more magical than her perfectly-maintained figure to say. Adeforth and Lilianna didn't even have the benefit of being legendary figures to the current generation, and the pair of them were scarcely slowed by armour, with only a token regard for choosing a good target. If magic was at play, it was the weakest, lowest expression; the universal magic that came from being alive, from having a soul, from being a person. With enough confidence, enough skill to erase your self-doubt, then the world would give just a little.

Just enough to cut some hapless fool in two, confident that his armour was enough.

If you wanted that protection, get something magical. Get something that pushed back against the world and reinforced itself. Or stick to playing with people who fought by the same rules as you did.

It was a lesson that the Boars were learning right now, part of their charge interrupted and with one now ex-member rather blatantly sliced in two. Although, to give the slavers some credit, at least they had responded with enough discipline to attack Tyaethe rather than panicking... for all the good it was going to do. At most, their own efforts were just buying time by making it difficult to follow-up with another swing. Maybe they'd get a few injuries in?

On the plus side, this did give a venue to vent some of the frustration around this entire scenario. That was neat.

Advent of the Dawn — A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP (Reboot)

Jennifer Whittemore

Swaying on her feet, it seemed questionable that Jennifer was even paying much attention to the briefing, until the small girl gave an emphatic nod. Right, right, send the aggressive trio off to pick off reinforcements. And if they got in trouble or were needed, just run away! Or fly away, in her case. Sounded simple enough; go out, kill some monsters, come back, rinse and repeat.

And try to not get too badly hurt in the process. No doubt they'd all heal pretty well, but there were limits to how fast that would go.

The engineering bay was the same boring old place as ever. Really, she didn't even know what most of the things did or what they were for, and she'd never really spent much time there. Normally, Jennifer would be more likely to head over to medical, even if it was for the sake of Chi-Mechframe testing, but it probably made sense to store everything in one place for general deployment. Hm, not that there was much for her to actually pick up from it? More a better place to put her clothes.

As usual, the nice researcher lady whose name she couldn't remember--where had she left her notebook before lunch? Maybe up in medical...?--was there, holding the little pink stone that represented the core of Albion's combat functionality, and the source of its armour. Just slot it into the choker like so and--

A polite cough interrupted her. Right, Albion still had its quirks to work out. Like, if she didn't want her clothing shredded, take it off now. No fancy matter-absorption here. Right, now she could just depress the gem fully and...

It felt strange. It always felt strange. Something hooking into parts of her body she was barely aware of, thin spikes of metal lancing through her skin, spreading out and flattening, forming armour and clothes perfectly contoured and skintight. A transformation that started from the inside and tended to disregard whatever was clinging to her at the time. Maybe that could be useful on its own?

At last, the masked visor settled into place, and all along the Chi-Mechframe's length, blue light came to life.

Hm, that seemed like a good phrase to copy. "Albion, launching!"

Jennifer's exit was less a launch, and more a graceful fall backwards out into open sky. Closer and closer came the ground, accelerating constantly despite the rushing air, enough to slip past the earlier-launching Hoshiko. But it didn't matter, as now she was transformed, and nothing, nothing, could beat this manoeuvrability.

With no warning, no clear impetus, the freefall turned into a corkscrewing loop, Jennifer laughing at the feeling of free flight--and levelled off. This was a serious mission, after all, there was only a little room for showing off. Just a little.

... which way was North? She wasn't a homing pigeon.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

There was a long moment of total inaction from the paladin before she took a step forwards, grip tightening around her sword. "Why did you not tell us? What possessed you to wait for a theft and then contact mercenaries? Mercenaries? Why not come straight to the Iron Roses, or tell the church of this missing piece?"

Sword dropping, the paladin sighed, voice flat as she continued, "Or you could have just come to me. You should know history, there were things like this to clean up before..."

Even without any of the other reasons to think that going to this particular paladin would be a good idea for retrieving a missing shard in Veilena's case. What was Tyaethe going to do, turn down a meeting with a duchess over her father's rebellion? Of course not, that was stupid. Maybe the girl was just oblivious? Magical prodigies, honestly...