Zeroth

The Jade Stream

Maybe her experience as an assassin could give her some insight into the fight? I could PM you some info, since it may not obvious what Dai Xin's doing at first glance.

Hunting Beasts and Monsters (Remake)

Will magic take the form of general manipulation of the element(though darkness seems to include summoning), or do we need to come up with specific abilities that would be somewhat unique to our characters using those mediums? And if it's the latter, do we need to run those special abilities past the GM/co-GM?

Hunting Beasts and Monsters (Remake)

Here's my character, let me know if anything's amiss or I need to change/flesh something out.

CS

Name: Kenji Nakamura

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Appearance:

Kenji

Magic: Blood

Weapon: Cross Spear, and a knife similar to the one seen in the appearance picture above.

Personality: Kenji is highly intelligent and analytical, but does nothing without a firm understanding of what the risks are, especially to himself. He's also a staunch believer in honest pay for honest work, though "pay" in many cases may be relative to what he needs at the moment. He's not entirely selfish, and is willing to help people or act altruistically, but he very much values his own life above the lives of others and it shows. He finds himself equally terrified and curious of this new world, and seeks to understand it as much as survive it. Preferably, however, he'd like to do this through study, from behind a very thick set of walls, rather than venture out into the nightmarish landscape.

To those first meeting him, Kenji often comes off as cold and aloof, perhaps even arrogant. Any of these things might be an accurate assessment, all told, but in truth Kenji doesn't have much skill in the way of social interaction. He hates small talk, claiming that it's pointless, but in actuality it's probably because he has no idea how to do it. Any time he speaks to someone it's because he has a clear goal; either ask a question and gain information, or present a statement relevant to the situation at hand. He's not opposed in the slightest, however, to working with others--indeed, he'd much rather be in a group, rather than all alone on this dangerous night.

Aside from his off putting speech patterns and lack of sociability, perhaps Kenji's biggest flaw comes from his own intelligence. He tries to consider every possible outcome of a situation and minimize risks, often to the point of freezing up and not taking any action at all out of a fear of the unknown. Combined with his quiet nature, it can make him appear slow-witted, and it's a definite danger in this world where the Hunters must put themselves at risk every night...

Bio: A late night at the school, attending to student council business...a long walk home, as a street light flickered. Running footsteps, a girl's voice. Then her face, which would have been cute if not for the twisted smile and the insanity in her eyes. A knife digging into his stomach. White walls, the smell of sterile plastic and rubber. A constant beeping sound he wished would stop, many voices over him. A blood red fog, a cloud that thickened and darkened. Another girl, though this one's face was kind. Then blackness.

Then two bright blue moons, and a world of nightmares.

Other: Surprisingly fit for such a nerdy sort.

Hunting Beasts and Monsters (Remake)

Ah, so even though we're putting magic abilities and weaponry on the CS, we may still need to actually obtain it/learn it within the actual narrative. Alright, cool, I'll get a character up relatively soon.

Hunting Beasts and Monsters (Remake)

Interested, but I have a few questions. If I were to have a character start basically from the absolute beginning--as in they're still wearing whatever they were in when they were pulled from their world, and haven't picked up any weapons yet--and have that character focus on learning how to fight the monsters, do magic, and other such things from either the Old Hunter, other characters, whatever means present themselves, how long would that character last? I kind of want to present a character that starts from literally nothing, so that I get more development out of them as they "learn the ropes," so to speak, but would a character who's "in-training," so to speak, be capable of surviving in this kind of setting? Seeing that magic and weapons are already present on the CS, it makes me think that characters are meant to have sort of "been at it" for a while already, and that a complete newb might not be viable.

The Jade Stream

Let me know if my fight sequences are boring or overly complex, a lot of times when I write things like this I forget to keep it simple, or the flow isn't smooth enough.

The Jade Stream

The gates of Mingdu Temple stood wide open after the intruder's passing. Already a few townsfolk were beginning to gather there, watching and waiting to see what would happen. Given the school's fame, it wasn't often some wandering warrior would challenge them--there were many who sought to join the school, but few who were arrogant enough to believe they could best it. Over time, the more curious began to trickle into the temple proper, nervously passing through the gate before peering into the grounds. No one was there to stop them--Zhang Li's entire class, even the wounded Xun, now stood transfixed by the two warriors before them.

Dai Xin slowly crept forward, sliding his feet with only the motion of his ankles and pulling his body along. Zhang Li waited for him, hands and arms relaxed.

There was a puff of dust from Dai Xin's back foot, and in an instant he had covered the distance. His right foot stepped through into a new stance, coming down heel first. With the same rolling motion as the rest of his foot came down flat on the ground, he turned his hips and punched straight. Though so many parts of his body were moving in tandem to generate power, the side-punch only took fractions of a second. In less time than that, Zhang Li reacted. His right leg stepped back and he settled his hips lower, his knees twined together, and at the same time he swept aside Dai Xin's punch with a circular sweep of the arm. He stepped forward again, the same blocking hand coming up to strike, but Dai Xin had already pushed back with his front foot and retreated. There was no pause between this and the next attack, and the redhaired man lunged with the same punch. This time it was a jab; instead of sweeping it away Zhang Li slapped the side of Dai Xin's hand and deflected it, then swept the same arm in the opposite direction to brush away Dai Xin's follow up strike with his other arm. At the same time he had begun to step back again, but found Dai Xin's left foot had come forward and set heel-to-heel with his right, preventing him from changing his stance. Without hesitation Zhang spun the opposite direction, his legs corkscrewing together again but with the right over the left this time. He flung out both arms, one behind for balance, the other slapping at Dai Xin's face. But this was no woman's slap--the striking surface was the hard heel of his palm, supported by the bone of his wrist. Dai Xin's eyes followed its path, growing wider as it came closer to his temple...

At the last moment he escaped, retreating in the same way as before. And once again he leapt back in, moving in a straight and direct line. This time he punched with his left hand first, a mirrored image of the very first attack he'd made. Zhang Li unwound his legs, his rear arm whipping around to slap Dai Xin's fist with a loud smack, forcing it far towards the right and across Dai Xin's body, and his own arm reached across to his opposite hip. It was like he had lashed out with a piece of rope, and its momentum carried it until it wrapped back around him. But by twisting his hips again, back the way he'd come, that same arm whipped out again, this time like a string with an iron weight at its end. That weight was Zhang Li's fist, knuckles tilted slightly for a back-fist strike. Again Dai Xin retreated, his eyes following the path of Zhang Li's strike. Its momentum carried it all the way through where its target would have been, but when it reached alignment with the instructor's shoulder it snapped back as if it had hit some kind of spring. The strength of a Five Wheel Striking master's hips and core body must have been immense to control such rapid and powerful spinning strikes.

"His movements are so basic...he goes in and out on straight lines and only throws one dimensional punches." one of the students said. "Teacher Zhang hasn't been hit once!" Some of the others cheered their teacher on or booed the intruder, but Zhang Li kept his eyes on his opponent, who once again came in with a combination of punches--three this time--and had them deflected by the spinning and twisting motions of Five Wheel Striking Style before retreating.

They don't notice that I haven't hit him once either. the instructor thought. He would have been tense with apprehension, but he let out a deep exhalation and stayed relaxed. He's fast, and powerful--any one of those strikes could break bones or knock someone out. But what's his strategy? Could he be...

This time Dai Xin jabbed with the left hand, and when Zhang Li flicked his wrist to deflect it the intruder's right leg came up from the rear to throw a snapping front kick. The fabric of Dai Xin's pants let out a crack like a whip, it was so fast. For the first time he got past Zhang Li's front hand, but the rear hand received the kick with a soft palm, letting Dai Xin's foot push his arm back until his elbow was past his ribs. Zhang Li spun his hips, attempting to drag the leg and straighten it out so he could break the knee with a downward chopping strike, but Dai Xin pulled it back before he could tighten his grip on it, and again the redhaired man retreated and lunged back in with a different combination...

The Jade Stream

I guess I kinda already did it a little bit in my last post, but when Qi is being used, is there any kind of indication of it? Glowing auras, energy flowing from the impact of an attack, anything like that? Can other people capable of manipulating it sense that it's being used nearby, or sense that a person has a large/small amount of it? Basically, how many power level/spirit pressure/haki/etc tropes are associated with it?

The Jade Stream

The younger man, Xun, gave a loud shout and pushed off the ground hard with his rear foot, his forward foot barely lifting up. The low stance gave the lunge the appearance of simply sliding across the ground, as if he stood on ice. His right fist shot out at mid-height, a powerful punch that used the momentum of his leap.

Dai Xin drew himself up until he was standing straight, heels together. There was only a slight shift in the position of his body, but the added distance left Xun's extended fist hanging harmlessly in the air. Dai Xin slapped it aside with the palm of his left hand, just as his left knee came up to his chest as if he were stepping on a high ladder.

With a grunt he turned his hips away from Xun and kicked backwards. The motion was similar to a basic side kick, but Dai Xin's leg twisted as it drove into the boy's gut, using his heel instead of the edge of his foot like a back kick. The turning of his body gave it more penetrating power and made the extension of the leg a more natural movement.

Xun was bent double over the red-haired man's leg, pupils shrinking in wide white eyes, and coughed up spit as the air was forcibly driven from his body. He hovered off the ground for half a moment, before crashing down on his rear and sliding backwards until he sat, slumped, legs and arms spread limply in front of him.

"Twisting Spear Kick." Dai Xin announced, before relaxing his stance and folding his hands behind his back. "Your attack was strong, but pointless. Five Wheel Striking Style is known as the ultimate in defense, is it not? Why did you attack first?"

Zhang Li rushed to see to the fallen student, who was still coughing violently as he struggled to get his air back. After placing a hand on the boy's gut, he breathed a sigh of relief--the attack had not been bone-to-bone, so nothing had been broken, and the soft organs hadn't been ruptured. He looked at Dai Xin with his narrow eyes, a bead of sweat forming on his brow.

"Have you no shame, to attack a child in such a way!?" he demanded, helping the still sputtering student to his feet. "You're a grown man! You could have killed him!"

"Then why did you send him to fight?" Dai Xin raised an eyebrow. Zhang Li stepped forward, brow furrowed in anger and mouth twisting at the corners. But he remained calm, even as a slight charge, almost like static electricity, could be felt in the air around him.

"Yes...I am sorry, Xun. I should not have risked my student for this." He took a horse stance as well, but where Xun's hands had been near his hips, ready to lunge out and strike, the instructor's were held up and ready, both arms slightly extended and loose, palms facing outward. "Come! Zhang Li, empty-hand teacher of Five Wheel Striking Style, will be your opponent!"

"Thank you. Please teach me." Dai Xin bowed again, before returning to his own stance. His own eyes narrowed, and the air around him seemed to grow heavier.

"This time, I will strike first."

The Jade Stream

The Mingdu temple had an orderly structure, its walls forming a rectangle around the grounds and merging into the main buildings. After walking through the gate, Dai Xin found himself in a small courtyard. On either side of a cobble stone path were zen rock gardens, and a few well-kept trees. It was a short journey to the main building, a structure of white washed stone with a bright red roof. The porch and the floors were made of the same polished wood, and Dai Xin stepped inside through the still-open framed-paper door. The student who had opened the gate had not bothered to close any other doors in his haste.

The main building's entrance hall was a straight corridor that turned corners at both ends, no doubt continuing to other parts of the complex. However, directly in front of Dai Xin was another door directly across the hall, which lead to the inner grounds. This part of the temple, hidden by the walls and surrounded by the buildings, could be considered the true "courtyard," and was the place where the students were currently training. From the color and style of their robes, compared to the more senior-looking man who stood at the head of the group, Dai Xin guessed that these were the lower-ranked students.

"You are the one who claims the right of challenge?" called the senior. He was a tall man, broad of shoulder, powerfully built, with a shaved head and narrow eyes. "I am called Zhang Li, and I am one of the instructors here. May I ask your name?"

Dai Xin again clasped his hands together and bowed.

"I am Dai Xin, sole disciple of Grandmaster Wu Ji of the Fist of the Sky. Forgive my impudence, but I seek the headmaster of the Five Wheel Striking School."

"Hmph! If you recognize your arrogance, then do not ask us to forgive it." the man said. "The master gives instruction to the higher ranking students in the furthest rear courtyard. But you will not be permitted entry. Leave now, before we have you thrown out. If you seek glory, find it elsewhere; our school is dedicated to forging the harmony of mind, body, and spirit."

"I share that dedication." Dai Xin said, standing straight again. "And I did not come here for glory. I came here to test myself. If you wish to throw me out...that shall be a fine test as well."

One of the students, a muscular young man with sharp eyes, stepped out from the class.

"Teacher Zhang, I'll fight him! Those stories about him are nothing more than hear-say, and I have confidence in my skills! Please, allow me to beat him and send him running like the dog he is!"

The instructor looked between the two, obviously in thought. After a moment, he looked to Dai Xin.

"If you lose a fair match, will you leave peaceably?"

"I will." Dai Xin bowed again.

"Very well. Xun, prepare yourself."

The young man was already walking in a wide circle around Dai Xin, until he stood several feet across from him, where the whole class would be able to witness their match. They stared at each other for a moment, then with a shout, Xun took his stance--a basic horse stance, though angled so that his body was sidelong to Dai Xin and his right knee, the one closest to his opponent, was turned slightly inward to protect the groin.

Dai Xin raised one foot and brought it stomping down, the sound resonating through the courtyard. His own stance was a back-leg position, his right leg bent with his body weight centered on it, and his left leg--the one closer to Xun--slightly straighter. His rear fist was held near his navel, and his left was extended towards his opponent.

Zhang raised one hand, then brought it down as if severing an invisible ribbon in the air between the two.

"Begin!"