Hyundai focused himself while the three gadget drones charged his position. It was quite unnerving but Fate-san had taught him to be ready for things like that. After several seconds, waiting until the last moment, "Round Shield!" Hyundai casted a shield that was just big enough to get in the way of all three drone's trajectories.
The drones collided with the shield, stopping in place, though the AMF's began to immediatly negate the barrier, and would probably break through it in a matter of moments.
Though it couldn't be seen, Nanoha did smile a bit at the tactic, remembering her earlier adventures with a certain Librarian. He might not make a bad coach for Hydundai, if he has time.
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime listElena didn't stop once the drone's progress was blocked by Hyundai's barrier.
She flew as fast as she was able, going around the building and then ascending until she was at the rooftop in which Hyundai was standing. The young soldier ran as fast as she could to the mage's side charging another blast of her Aurora to strike at the drones the moment they brought down the barrier.
As the shield gave way, Wilbur's shots and Elena's suceeding volley managed to wipe out all but a single drone. The remaining survivor came streaking out of the cloud of smoke, on a path that would take it within feet of Elena's position.
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime listSeeing the drone so close to her Elena acted on instinct. What she would do next was something entirely reckless and quite likely not to work.
She ran at the remaining drone, trying to change her device into the saber-like form she used on her duel with Signum. If the field of the droen didn't negate her efforts she would then try to cut it in half. Otherwise she was about to be in a world of pain.
Elena's blade was only half negated, and her swing managed to strike the drone's hull. Unfortunately, her failure to cleave the drone meant that the two collided with one another with no insignificant force. Ricocheting off the girl, the wounded drone was unable to regain stability in time, and crashed into a nearby building.
A band of blue came through the sky to the rooftop that Elena, Hyundai and Wilbur standing on. "Nice! Nice, Nice, Nice!" Subaru complimented enthusiasitically three times, before realizing that Elena had taken a nasty hit, "Eh, um, you okay?" She asked, in the process of skating over to where the group was standing.
A distance away, Signum, still watching the battle, simply closed her eyes. "Well, at least the response was quick, and the form wasn't bad."
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime listElena was trying to sit up on the floor, she had lost her hold on it when the drone crashed with her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating on moving while enduring the pain on her shoulder.
She had it quite good, the drone was going too fast when it crashed with her due to Hyundai's barrier and then her own reckless strike.
On hindshight she should have just retreated and shot it down from a distance, but on the heat of the moment melee seemed like the way to go.
Seeing how her companions seemed worried about her state she rose to her feet "I'm fine... just a little bruised"
"The girl needs a lot more of training, if you're going to break something at the very least you have to make sure you do it properly" Vita said standing at Signum's side.
"You're really not hurt?" Subaru asked again, "In hindsight, that looked like a pretty bad hit," she continued before being interrupted.
"Alright! Could all the forwards meet me back at the starting location?" Nanoha's voice came through. "I'd like to talk about the excercise a little, if you don't mind."
A visible smile came across Subaru's face as she processed the thought that this would be her first official training lecture from Nanoha. She pumped her fist forward, leading the way "Let's go!" she announced, generating a wing road and waiting for everyone to get back on their feet.
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime listSubaru began speaking while the group made their way back, "I didn't know you had a sword though, that was kinda cool," she said to Elena openly, smiling as usual.
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime list"It's still cool though," Subaru concluded as the group reached the others.
"What took you so long? We're still in the middle of training remember?" Teana chided, mostly towards Subaru.
"Ehehe, sorry, Tia."
Teana simply huffed softly in response.
"Okay, everyone's here," Nanoha called out, once everyone had arrived. "First off, good work on taking out the gadget drones. They might have been fake, but they're close to what you would deal with during the real thing. First training mission, objective achieved." Nanoha said with a smile.
Subaru's expression would probably be best translated into words as 'OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH Nanoha-san praised me.' "Subaru, try not to start drooling," Teana repremanded telepathically. Subaru straightened up a bit.
"That being said, I'd like to go over the methods that everyone used to shoot down the gadgets. Is that alright?" Nanoha asked.
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime list"Then to start, let's start with the Stars and Lightning teams. First would be Subaru," Nanoha began as a screen showing a repeating video of Subaru using her legs to subdue a drone and then proceeding punch a hole in the drone's back. "What Subaru did here basically boils down with hitting the drone with enough physical force to shoot it down. Certainly an effective method if you can generate that kind of striking power. Since there's nothing in the attack that's directly magic related, the AMF has less of an effect."
"Next would be Caro, who used a combination of of two different methods for fighting against an AMF. The first is the use of Freidrich's fire element. Heat might be energy, but it isn't magic. So the heat generated by the fire was able to damage the drones. Next would be Caro's use of summoning magic to generate chains to subdue the drones. Since the chains were summoned into place outside the AMF, the physical chains were able to wrap and subdue their targets."
"Teana's method was probably the most technically difficult, though it's also the most effective method used today. She placed a barrier around a standard magic projectile. The AMF negated the barrier, but was unable to negate the projectile itself before the shot hit its target. Considering this is a AA-Rank skill, I suppose Teana is due a little bit of praise." Teana blushed a little, embarassed, "no, not at all."
"With that, we come to the Ghost team. In case you hadn't figured it out yet, the flying drones were actually intended for at least Elena and Wilbur, since the two of you are flight capable. Well anyway, the first method these two used was perhaps the most obvious method, simply hitting the target with enough power that the AMF cannot abate all of it. Unfortunately, this can be rather inefficient, considering that you're essentially using brute force. Though you did manage to decrease the fatigue load by attacking in a somewhat coordinated fashion from differing approach vectors. The next method you all came up with, with Hyundai's help, was essentially the inverse of Teana's method. Instead of using a barrier around a projectile, Hyundai cast a sufficiently powerful shield spell which weakened the drones' AMF's when they collided it. Wilbur and Elena's quick follow-up managed to damage most of the remaining drones."
The screen that had been showing the videos of each indivdual dissappeared. "As for the last one, Elena, though it was a rash and probably ill-advised move, I'm going to reserve judgment, considering the training path you intend to take," Nanoha said in a kind, yet serious manner.
Meckana continued waiting for Vonh's response, "Did you hear me, I asked what you thought of the machine's combat capabilities?"
edited 6th Nov '10 5:05:22 PM by zzzdragon
Fear the Gothilolions! | Anime listA screen with Jail's face popped up in front of Meckana. "I think your drones are quite wonderful. No need to push Vonh. I have a nice little plan in store for them soon. We'll be using them with my gadget drones. It's almost time, hehehehe."
Hyundai smiled as Captain Takamachi commented on Caro's performance. She had worried him quite a bit as she was prone to making a few mistakes. Caro and Erio did not seem as worried about something like that happening, but they were equally excited about the compliment.

Elena started chasing after the drones by flying just a couple of feet above the street level. Being a little tired after two consecutive Auroras Elena changed tactics. She instead kept an almost steady fire of Light Shooters at the drones.