AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
Xake had been right to move, as several of those Hardlight spikes from the corridor shot up from the veins, barely missing him.
As the cadet returned fire, Akir repeatedly dodged with a surprising grace for his age, despite having to let go of the ground in order to do so, meaning he briefly lost control of the spikes.
An apparent weakness in the technique.
Despite the intensity, Akir took the opportunity to make some observations.
"Instead of close combat, you primarily focus on your gun to fight" he noted, moving his head to the right to dodge another shot, slightly singing his hair. "While you are quite skilled with it, there are a lot more options than shooting projectiles and shots. Remember, we have a versatile natural tool at our disposal."
He grinned at him.
"Be creative."
He seemed to be hinting at something. Nonetheless, he allowed Xake to retreat further, giving him an opportunity to charge his weapon.
edited 28th Aug '17 6:28:34 PM by Enirboreh
bork
Blood Mage Apologist
The rocket slammed into Copy 2's back, and exploded. Needless to say, the wolf-like monster was not very pleased with this.
Whirling around, the creature stared at Jok'a, fangs bared in a snarl. He didn't appear very injured, but considering the death glare he was giving the Kaydenite, it was highly likely that the blast had hurt.
Tromping towards him, the creature paused for a moment.
... and then it opened its jaws... and spoke.
"You," it growled. "I remember you. It snarled, dropping to all fours like a common animal. The fact that such a thing could speak was... shocking. It certainly hadn't spoken during its rampage at Jok'a's hometown. And if anyone had heard it speak before, they weren't alive to tell the tale.
Naturally, this was the moment that it charged Jok'a with a roar loud enough to shatter glass.
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
Schrodinger's Human
Light Side - Training in Academy
His ranged attacks were of no use. "Be creative". That was, of course, a hint that headmaster gave to his future student. "Creativity often ruins practicality". That was what Xake often told himself.
Still, he knew that shooting was now meaningless. He stopped the charge, then generated three grenades. Upon impact, they would released dozens of fragments. Xake threw three of them in front of Akir then shot three of them almost simultaneously. Fragments would release in Akir's direction. In the meantime, Xake would approach him and apprehend him. Or at least, try to do it.
Everything that lives is designed to end.
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
The headmaster actually looked surprised, only barely managing to create a shield to stop the attack. However, several shards managed to slip past, tearing his clothes in some places.
"STOP!" he called, gesturing at his damaged garment.
"Excellent work. You actually managed to hit me. On your first day, too. Now, remember this: Variety is key.We are facing a dangerous enemy, so we must always be a step ahead, and that includes in our usage of Hardlight."
"You are quite observant, I noticed. An excellent skill, especially involving missions as dangerous as going to the Dark Side. However, I suggest working on mêlée weaponry skills. Some opponents won't be so kind to let you back off."
He turned to the rest of the class.
"Now, who wants to go next?"
edited 30th Aug '17 2:27:03 AM by Enirboreh
bork
Light Side - Aentolin
A'dni raised her hand. "I will."
Shields flickered to life on her arms as she assumed a defensive stance.
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
He nodded at her. "As you wish."
A shield user. This could be interesting.
Plunging his hands into the ground, the veins spread out once again towards A'dni, dozens of spikes breaking through the floor from the intersecting points.
His eyes were brightly glowing from the sheer amount of effort it took to create this many.
Damn, I'll have to ease it up a little. This is more tiring than I remembered...
edited 30th Aug '17 9:00:03 AM by Enirboreh
bork
Dark Side: Camp
That's new. Jok'a thought to himself, right before Copy 2 rocketed towards him. Jok'a hastily dived to the left and fired another missile construct at the beast.
"That makes two of us, but the pleasure's all yours." He dryly quipped, trying to ignore the viscera covering him.
edited 30th Aug '17 7:15:40 AM by svenorzokarkoff
Light Side - Aentolin
A'dni moved out of the spikes' path, towards a spot on the ground clear of the veins. Akir had more experience; her best course of action was to wait for him to slip up.
She raised her left shield in defense as she looked for an opening to throw her right one.
Blood Mage Apologist
Copy 2 roared and charged past Jok'a, before whirling around to charge again. Naturally, he got a missile full in the face again. Once again it didn't appear to do much damage, but it made him even angrier.
Bunching his legs, the beast jumped into the sky and came down next to the caravan, growling. And then its muzzle split into a snarl as Jok'a turned to face him.
Grabbing the caravan, the beast lifted, his muscles bulging, and suddenly the caravan rose. Copy 2 balanced it on his shoulders, red eyes staring at Jok'a with malice and fury. Opening its muzzle, it spoke a simple, but meaningful phrase as the weapons locker containing a certain Kaydenite fell over inside.
"Catch."
And then it hurled the ten ton caravan at him.
edited 30th Aug '17 11:41:15 AM by Cwest5538
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
Akir, seeing that his usual technique wasn't working, let the spikes dissipate. He closed his eyes and put his hands together, concentrating.
Sparks began to fly from him as Hardlight ran through his veins, hundreds of needle thin shards detaching from his body and levitating around him.
They slowly turned in the air to point towards A'dni, before Akir opened his now burning eyes and thrust his hand forward.
The shards flew towards A'dni at a barely visible pace, the ones that missed actually vanishing through the walls.
Rine, meanwhile, noticed something from his position on the sidelines. A mistake he had made so many times himself in his battles with his father.
Akir, so focused on his new technique, forgot to block.
bork
Dark Side- Camp
"Ya mangy fucker!"
Jok'a quickly threw himself out of the caravan's path. Knowing that his missiles would not be able to stop the vehicle' from smashing into him thanks to it's heavy armour.
"What the hell are ya doin here!?" He raged, firing off a larger missile.
Light Side - Aentolin
A'dni blocked the spikes aimed at her with her shield. The force knocked her back a little, and she stumbled, but she managed to catch herself before she fell.
Akir was focusing on offense. He had left himself wide open for an attack, A'dni surmised.
With her other shield still raised in anticipation of another attack, A'dni threw her right one at Akir with all of the strength she could muster.
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
The shield slammed into his stomach at incredible force, making him lose his footing and completely bowling him over. The shock seemed to numb his senses, the remaining needles dissipating in the air.
Panting from exhaustion, he looked up at A'dni, then took note of the shocked look Rine and Kyxe were giving them.
"What?" he asked, before he realised.
He was on his knees.
"If you manage to knock me down, I'll graduate the whole class."
He had underestimated them.
He cleared his throat, his tone grim.
"You all... graduate."
edited 31st Aug '17 9:50:42 AM by Enirboreh
bork
Light Side - Aentolin
A'dni didn't register Akir's words at first. She was focusing on keeping her breathing regular, anticipating an attack that never came.
Then she finally looked and saw him on his knees, and his words finally hit her.
They were graduating. They had only just got here and they were graduating. She was graduating.
A'dni hadn't planned for this. She hadn't planned for what happened after school,
How would Skal react? Would he stop paying for her mother's treatment? The deal had been to attend Aentolin, and now that that was over, he had an easy way out.
And even with all of that, there was pride. A'dni had beaten him. Even if she had just gotten lucky, she had won a game that should have been rigged.
A'dni's shields disappeared in thin air. She shuffled back among her classmates. She needed to collect her thoughts.
Schrodinger's Human
Light Side - Academy
Graduation.
The event that Xake predicted would happen years later, was now here. "Tumes are arrogant, but I did not expect for them to suffer from.hubris this much."
Was it a trick of some sort? Xake did not know, of course, and decided to just let time flow.
"Congratulations, A'dni". He said to her. A'dni accomplished what he could not and she earned his respect for that.
"I have to improve." He thought.
Everything that lives is designed to end.
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
Akir struggled back up to his feet with a mixture of a proud and sorrowful expression.
"It's been quite a while since a class knocked me down on their first day. Maybe you are more skilled than the... more privileged, students who have attended before you. Or maybe I'm simply getting too old to teach now. Most likely the latter."
"Nonetheless, you have all graduated. Feel free to go up to the lounge to rest, and if you ever need any help with anything, you are more than welcome to come find me. I will inform the Council at our next meeting."
Seeing that A'dni was having a dilemma, he walked up to her and spoke quietly.
"If you need to talk, I'll be in my office. On the second floor, down the corridor to the right of the lounge."
At that, he walked out of the training room, leaving Kyxe to accurately sum up the situation.
"What the crap just happened?"
edited 1st Sep '17 3:35:54 AM by Enirboreh
bork
Blood Mage Apologist
The caravan slammed onto its side and slid to a stop, leaving a trail of crushed gore in its wake. Copy 2 slowly advanced on Jok’a, fangs bared. ”My business here is none of your concern. I will finish what I started all of those years ago.”
With that, he charged at Jok’a again, taking the missile head on. This time the explosion did appear to hurt him slightly, but the raging wolf-beast was still charging. It seemed like very little save for very, very excessive force would actually hurt him; the trick, it seemed, was probably to wear him out rather than just trying to kill him outright.
Wooze looks at Glass with a 'please take her away' look
Where am I? What's going on?
Dark Side - Wave Breaker Caravan
L'okh nearly had a heart attack as Copy 2's breathing got closer and closer, and the discovery of her hiding place became more and more imminent. And then she heard a boom, and the sounds began to get farther away.
Well damn, the firecracker was still alive. With the way he'd gone to look for Tr'ev just before the beast showed up covered in guts, she'd thought for sure that he was a goner. And judging by the ear-piercing roar that came next, he soon would be. But at least his sacrifice would serve the noble goal of keeping the Council informed of Rok'n's movements.
More booms came and went, and just as L'okh began to think that she was in the clear, the ground started shaking and the locker she was in fell over. Ow.
To prevent further injury, L'okh surrounded herself with hardlight cushions, straining a bit at the effort of making a soft construct. This quickly proved worth said effort when her locker flew across the caravan to the opposite wall, which was now suddenly the floor. Thanks to her cushioning, this only caused bruises as opposed to broken bones.
Still hurt like hell, though.
Dark Side- Camp
Jok'a scowled at Copy 2's words. "Bring it furball! Ya failed once, and you're gonna fail again!" He roared, and formed a single large missile, Despite his words, Jok'a knew that his missiles alone wouldn't be enough to bring down Rok'n's predator, much less deter him. With this in mind, the mechanic's eyes began glowing brighter as he formed five short missiles with thicker heads, running for the caravan as he fired them at Copy 2.
Once the missiles detonated, they would fire off hardlight shrapnel in a small radius. It might not injure Copy 2 significantly, but it would hurt like hell...he hoped.
edited 2nd Sep '17 11:23:45 AM by svenorzokarkoff
Light Side - Aentolin
A'dni didn't want to stick around to find out what the crap had happened. Akir had offered, so she decided to follow him to his office. Maybe he knew of a way to contact Skal or her mother.
She left through the same door the headmaster had, avoiding her classmates' gazes, and went deeper into the school.
She realized too late that she didn't know which way Akir had gone.
After several minutes of wandering, A'dni finally admitted to herself that she was lost.
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy Corridor
Thankfully (and conveniently) for A'dni, a servant chose that moment to walk out a nearby door with a box of papers, taking note of her lost look.
"H-Hey, you lost, miss? Do you need any help with d-directions?"
It was a young man with short black hair, a slightly nervous look on his face. It was clear he was a newbie, from the way he was fidgeting.
bork
Light Side - Aentolin Academy Corridor
A'dni nodded.
"Yes. I'm A'dni. I'm a student here. Or I was. It's..."
Complicated? A long story? Neither of those were technically true.
"...not something I'd like to discuss. Do you need help with those?"
AKA Nixer
Light Side - Aentolin Academy Corridors
The young man mulled over her words for a moment, before realising what she meant.
"W-wait, you actually... On your first day? Well, erm... I-I'm actually taking these to Mr. Tume, so if you would just follow me..."
He led her back the way she came, towards the training rooms, before leading her down another corridor and up a double set of stairs. The corridor at the top was significantly larger, with a set of double doors at the end.
"Here we are. J-Just through there is Mr. Tume's office. I need to take these in, so I'll tell him you're here..."
The servant opened the doors, vanishing into the room, the sounds of a quiet conversation on the other side. After a few minutes, the door opened again, the servant coming back out, now free of papers.
"He's ready when you are, Miss. Good luck."
edited 9th Sep '17 2:37:08 AM by Enirboreh
bork
A'dni smiled. "Thank you."
She entered the office. She didn't sit down, instead folding her hands behind her back and drawing herself up to her full height.
"You said I could come up here," she said by way of greeting. "So I wanted to ask -"
She paused.
"What's going to happen next? For all of us?"
Light Side - Aentolin Academy
Veins of Hardlight approached Xake like that explosive snake-maggots Made Tehk developed in his free time. Feeling that this was an attack of some sort, the future soldier tried to avoid them.
While his purpose was to become the Ultimate Soldier, his close-range weapon wielding skills were close to a beginning novice. So, engaging in a close-range combat was out of option for Xake, as that would be a battle of a knife and sword or other better weapons.
Another disadvantage was an open space. With having little to none distractions to use, Xake was essentially full of holes against a powerful opponent.
Xake kept shooting at his opponent. It was the only thing he could do for a moment. As soon as he got further enough, he would charge his sniper shot. This was his plan that might not come to fruition.
Everything that lives is designed to end.