Raineh Daze

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

Gisela

The Hundi was indeed in a library, although it couldn't be said that she was reading much. The tomes owned by most nobility, no matter how expensive or old, were hardly of interest to somebody like her. While some families might have a few works on magic, it was exceptionally rare that any single family would have such a magical tradition as to personally own enough esoteric works to hold an experienced mage's attention. She knew of at least one such family down in Thaln, but the political mess there made the ongoing trouble here look almost harmless... although, part of that was the troubles further north spilling over into the dukes' internal conflict.

Instead of reading, she was seated at a table, diagramming... something. "That looks like a magic circle" to the untrained eye, and indeed it was, but the goal or function? That would be a mystery.

Not that she was alone in inspecting it, the red-skinned demon leaning over the table seemed to be scanning it as well. Which could only suggest that it was something summoning related, she didn't seem the type to care much for other mortal spells.

"Do you really need this many redundancies to focus the mana? You're hardly lacking for power, even with the inefficiency you could power this one on your own."

"It's more the principle of the thing, even if nobody else would ever use the design..."

Shadow Contract: A Demon-Slaying Action RP

Akira

Couldn't demons try to be a little bit more convenient with their timing? Or maybe just stick to some low-level fodder for a week or two whilst everyone got settled in properly? No, of course they didn't, and it wasn't really fair or... well, sensible to hold them to account in such a way, but that didn't mean that she didn't want to complain to someone about it.

After all, she'd been in the actual break room at the time, because it had a pretty nice TV in there. And a couch, that was important. Children's magical girl shows weren't her favourite thing in general, but Shiro liked them, so that was what they they were watching. So of course something had had to interrupt when she'd had the adorable not-little sister nestled beside her. At least Akira had learned long ago to never try and watch things live, just record them and catch up when they had time...

Plus she had to hope that the guy she'd tapped to take the cookies out of the oven remembered to do that before the fire alarm went off. At least people should have something to look forward to when they were done.

Grumbling as such, the short girl tugged Andrea through the barrier. Right, devil in a shopping centre, hopefully it wasn't like one of those weird magical girl villains and wasn't going to attack them with the contents of a makeup department or something.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Steffen's attempt at piercing the man's throat was unsuccessful, although the mercenary would never be likely to appreciate why, with Gerard's unexpected dodging of the swing and targeting of his vulnerable leg turning what would have been a poised attempt at defence--and likely a futile one, into an odd lurch as he already started to fall, only to catch the Ingvarr's shield too.

Stubborn as the man was, he still responded almost immediately to the winding with a snarled curse, attempting to use the hammer as a crutch and force himself back upright.

@Conscripts@HereComesTheSnow

---

With all the targeting of their legs and their ungainliness, it was unsurprising that the two other cursed monstrosities began to topple, either outright unable to support themselves or overbalancing with another wild swing. Not that the act of falling made them harmless, the wild flailing as their wounds gushed black blood maybe even more hazardous than the intentional attacks, for all the unexpected movement might accidentally clip one of their attackers with outrageous strength.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Psyker Landshark

---

Tyaethe

It was a good thrust, even if it was so fuelled with vengeance. Fast, maybe even fast enough to have not needed the little deception trick they had going on to present a challenge. Accurate, too, with a pretty good understanding of the human body and weakpoints. Which made it a pity, as there was no need for her to do anything, the vampire standing in place as the point was rammed through her torso.

"Wrong spot," she added helpfully, crushing the hope rising in the man's eyes. And he had gotten too close, far too close, for as little lasting damage as the spear had done. Close enough that she could just reach out and grab his throat, gauntlet tightening. Behind... hm, she hadn't cut right through, or even anywhere near so deeply, all things considered. Only a matter of time, but not a quick one. Still beating. "He's not dead, not yet."

Maybe she shouldn't be giving this chance. She knew what the Golden Boars were, what they were willing to do. What they'd brought along as reinforcements. But it wasn't personal, they were just... idiot children. Almost harmless, the ones trying to keep her here. The only two that might really be a delay were a twitch away from being out of the picture.

"You could all surrender, rather than fight me," Tyaethe said, sounding tired. Or maybe just bored? The helmet made it hard to tell, "At least you'll have a chance."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Tyaethe

The vampire stilled unnaturally, accepting the spear piercing into her abdomen. The mismatch... oh, how confident were they in their little deception, so so sure that it would pass scrutiny? Surely, this must be some amazing exhibition of speed, except they forgot they were dealing with an enemy that was no longer entirely human.

And she could hear heartbeats.

Ahead and behind, two heartbeats just lurking behind their protective screens. It was an impressive display, and no doubt effective if you could arrange for others to shield you to arrange it. But what if your target caught onto it? Well, there was only one way that was going to end, wasn't it? Acting on cue, the paladin spun to face the direction of her latest aggressor, grin invisibly splitting her face.

The duo were still speaking, but it was irrelevantirrelevantirrelevant. Who cared what taunts they had about spotting their 'clever ruse' or whatever it was? The heartbeat behind her was moving, and Tyaethe tensed, waiting...

Her sword swung wildly, the arc carrying it far behind her body. Exactly as intended. Its length was more than equal for some common spearman coming in to pierce her from behind, and no warning had been given.

How would their partner react, she wondered?

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

The hulking knight was forced to raise his hammer in defence, even as the very armour iced up. As a situation, it was untenable; he could barely move, yet a failed defence would see his head caved in. Except--

As Gerard had known, this monster was known for his strength. Even with the constraints on his leverage, the sheer lack of momentum, he somehow found the force to break Nico's ice, hammer raised to guard. And, just as swiftly, swung, with a laughing, "And why does that make you any better?"

For all the mercenary's grandstanding, and even the lack of pain in his voice, it was clear that something was wrong. His balance was stilted, an attempt being made to avoid any movement along one leg. The ice that hadn't been broken had done its work.

@HereComesTheSnow

---

The curse monsters could hardly be considered fast opponents. They were slow, lumbering. But they weren't oblivious, some spiteful awareness of the normal people around them guiding their actions. In Fanilly's case, an unexpected kick as it slowly turned to track her. Renar... well, he was hardly being subtle, and it fortunately seemed they were none too bright: one corpulent fist, swung wide round in response to his charge. Unfortunately for both of them, there was still the small issue of their sheer size and reach to contend with.

@VitaVitaAR@Psyker Landshark@Crimson Paladin

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.