Raineh Daze

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Miina Malina

Okay, so they were... doing this then. Prison breaking. Nothing important, just the biggest facility she'd ever been witness to, and they had to break in and rescue someone and not get caught or die in the process. If she'd been given some role in the infiltration, Miina would have no doubt started panicking and given the game away immediately. Or maybe that would be seen as more authentic in a prisoner?

That didn't mean she wasn't still nervous when the signal was given, the alarms were already going off and there was an airship coming and damn it that was loud and now they were fighting and—

Breathe. This was something that she at least had some practice and skills for, and as Arton had siad, she just needed to cover them. Arton was leading the way, and that meant that she could focus on casting. Nothing big—single target spells, just cycling elements for variety; she could definitely do more if she stuck to ice, but that would be much easier to adapt to, especially armoured—and focusing on anyone who might be in a position to get around the other two. And keep an ear open; she didn't want to be crept up on from behind as a rearguard...

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

At last, it seemed that the Iron Roses had broken through the resistance just enough: the Talderians' numbers were growing too thinned to continue maintaining a numerical advantage against everyone, and those who were still upright were forced to address the attempt Renar was leading to flank them by shifting what forces they had--something made all the harder when having to try and spare attention to avoid being shot in the head. Or, as the case may be, Vier's surprising decision to leap over them and attack from the back.

It made them rather less available to react in time to plug the gap Gertrude opened and seize Fanilly before she could sprint past.

Turning to chase her was even less of an option--if they left their backs open, that would only grant the Roses more opportunities to cut them down, and in this the famous retinue seemed to have a measure of indecision, caught between fulfilling their mission and not getting themselves killed to fail it even more.

Something resolved upon their captain's reaching Erion: both the bodies and the still-standing soldiers were immediately moved to the sidelines with their fellows, the defeated carefully climbing to their feet. As for the knights? Dragged over to Fanilly, the prince congratulating them on their success.

"—Unfortunately, I cannot say what your next challenge is, or when it will arrive," he continued, frowning, "Perhaps Thrinax would know, to look for a signal, but if he watches, he must be beyond human vision."

They would have to wait, then, for the second challenge the witch was setting to reveal itself. Yet even as the prince clarified this, there was the slightest glimmer of blue, an azure gleam—

---

When the magical torrent stopped, those that were caught were fortunately once again alive, the introductory shot apparently not counting as part of their next challenge. But where they had once been stood, a wide trench was gouged into the earth, continuing onwards and downwards to some deep pit, lined on all sides by some thick layer of glass. The angle and way the trench eventually tapered off could only mean that the caster was aiming down at them rather than straight towards the walls, and surely enough, that way lay a hill, two figures just about discernible from this distance—one much taller than the other.

At least whatever mage was behind it didn't seem interested in following up the shot with another of the same kind—although there was certainly some magic at play.

A few seconds later, a missive appeared, the sheet gently drifting down: "Reach the top of the hill. You will be safe until you start climbing."

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Fujiwara no Mokou

The visual comparison was striking: on one side, a girl that looked like a gust of wind could blow her over; on the other, a burly man. One had her hands shoved into her pockets and didn't look at all capable of fighting, while the other had his fists on full display. If any outcome was going to be decided by appearances alone, anyone with eyes would say that Mokou was bound to lose.

Until the Japanese girl started flying. Not flying much--obviously, "I have full aerial manoeuvrability and you don't" would let her win by attrition if nothing else, but they were talking about travelling together, so just hanging out of range proved nothing. Still, it was an early indication that there was magic in play. The second, naturally, was the thematic but ultimately pointless flames shaped into a phoenix around her.

To his credit, the burly man shrugged off the visual effects and started closing the distance, as fast as he could without being totally unable to avoid attacks.

Not that he had much luck avoiding what was coming.

When picking which spellcard to use--because, after all, danmaku being non-lethal didn't mean that taking enough bullets wouldn't still leave you unable to fight, just from bruising alone--she'd settled on one that was definitely visually striking, but had a relatively straightforward enough pattern that even a newcomer might be able to work it out, as long as he stood in front of her. Maybe.

Well, and she just thought the walls of manji-patterned amulets just looked neat. Plus they were a good test of your opponent's spatial awareness.

The man, predictably, froze up. Magical amulets ahead, magical amulets if you moved behind, from the side--and bullets fired right at your opponent, with so little space to move if you were stuck moving on the ground--

And then he blinked, realising that although they hurt, it wasn't like they were a knockout move. Visually overwhelming and alarming, but once you saw through it as just a trick, there was no reason to not just rush through and through an actual knockout blow against the girl who wasn't even making an effort to dodge--

Much to his confusion, and concern, the punch didn't make the white-haired girl fold. Instead, there was an ominous crack--and no more girl. Or bullets, just the flaming silhouette of a phoenix, now mantled on... his... shoulders.

That's when the magical attacks started again. This time, while there were far fewer, they were coming from right there, and there was no opponent to punch to try and make it stop, and then there were actual fiery explosions mixed in how would anyone be expected to avoid this and what sort of sadist had magic that just built up until it hurt too much to fight--

"Yield?" Mokou asked, looking rather... disappointed? Rather than continuing with danmaku, she was now stood with a fireball shrouding her hand, the heat wafting off it making it clear this one was actually dangerous, and the smell...

"Y-Yield," the guard agreed. His everything hurt, and to keep fighting with the stakes higher against this nonsensical witchcraft...

Mokou's flaming hand winked out, returning to her pocket as she went over to join the spectators. Hm, was anyone else even still fighting?

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Fujiwara no Mokou

With no preparations needed on her part, Mokou shuffled out slightly ahead of the others. If the guards were as strong as they thought, then it was best that the most expendable of the misplaced take any damage, obviously. Plus, she was itching to get started, so this way...

Hm, to treat this like danmaku, or just tone down more obvious attacks to safe levels? It wasn't like danmaku was much more on a per-hit basis than a weak punch... but it would definitely assess her opponent's reactions far better, as well as their endurance if those weren't up to snuff.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Miina Malina

"Umm... m-my magic's not... big..." Miina mumbled, really not aware enough of the intricacies of this sort of planning to offer an opinion on what would be best. Attacking an execution specifically seemed really difficult, but it wasn't like she had much expertise in night-time planning anyway. At least she could climb onto rooftops with some skill if they went for the second option? Harder than trees, but she liked climbing.

Her magic definitely wasn't anything big big, though. Or flashy. Particularly not next to everything Eve was proposing, all she had was parlour tricks. But...

"I'm... o-okay with ice, though? N-No fire." At least she could use magic without much of a fear of, well... burning a city down. And ice could be slippery, if that was useful.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

With their individual strength now being focused more effectively, it was clear that this downsized portion of the retinue was increasingly on the back foot--although, admirably, they were still stubborn about not allowing being physically and magically knocked to the ground to disrupt their co-ordination, still covering enough that they could just about start rising again.

But, if things continued this way, it was inevitable that they would lose. And this lead to some sort of discrete signal being passed amongst the group.

The next time one of them was going to fail to block a blow, nobody stepped in to protect. Oh, no; instead the wounded, likely dying, soldier clung on to the weapon impaling them, using their own life as a trade to let one of their companions attack instead. Why focus on avoiding the rain of spellfire if you could lure someone else into its path?

After all, as the Iron Roses had surmised: they had greater individual strength, and could win just by slowly picking off the Talderians. But that went the other way; the retinue would still be victorious even if they suffered more losses, as long as there was someone left standing at the end.

Probably two someones, if they were considering both the maid mages to be a threat.

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Dort Road

Right, roll up her sleeves--no sense in getting those stained in blood, though it was unfortunate that she'd probably be unable to avoid getting any mess on her dress--and get to work. Hm, so far as injuries went, this one was at least fairly straightforward to treat... without surgical expertise, there may have been considerations around stitches and range of motion that Hikari was obviously unaware of.

That made it simpler--it obviously differed in some significant practical respects to an actual first aid course, and the resources available were simpler, yet she was still able to simply ask the others to retrieve what she needed. Or the closest thing; one could hardly ask for some sort of antiseptic in a medieval setting, the strongest alcohol they had would have to do (hopefully not something intending to be drunk, at that), and aside from that it was simply a matter of staunching and pressure. Oh, but you couldn't avoid thinking about it, anything too frayed was simply asking for infection and things to get stuck, that was the entire point of washing it first.

As for the patient's reaction... it was hardly that different to tuning out someone complaining about an unfavourable review or the like. It wasn't important to pay attention to, as long as the rest made sure that Linie couldn't push her out of the way because it hurt.

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Sakura

Now that things were less dangerous--and that meant much less running around trying to avoid being accidentally shot, although towards the end she'd just been keeping an eye out to see if anybody needed to be pulled out of the way of a lethal blow--there was time to think.

Not that she needed to do all that much thinking, this was a ghost story. But they'd really got the perspectives backwards, and if it weren't for being so ridiculously overboard for a traipse through an abandoned mansion, they'd have been just another list of victims. Maybe with some fancier deaths.

Plus, Tera's decision to become a giant monster centipede of all things helped a bit more on the ideas front.

"So... does anyone think I should go get a priest?" the girl wondered, playing with a strand of hair. "We wouldn't need one for exorcism, but I'm sure there's always room for another local god."

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Miina Malina

As Izayoi told her story, Miina's expression gradually grew more and more crestfallen. That... oh, how could people have stories like that? This didn't even seem like all of it, there was this whole last stand business too and whatever had lead the older Mystrel into being a warrior in the first place, and then the Valheimr had specifically gone looking for her in particular? Why? What was there to gain in seeking out some former warrior just to ruin a peaceful life?

But the invaders seemed to do a lot of these things that didn't make sense but would make people very unhappy, seemingly just because they could. Or because they really disliked them--that was probably why Reisa had been waiting around in that village, right? Miina was getting the impression that more than just being greedy invaders, they were not very nice in general.

And here they were going to do another thing just to be cruel, and assassinate this lord. So that meant they would be staging a rescue--

Um. Was that a good idea? The redhead stared blankly into space. It seemed like the boobie lady had a lot of ideas, and Galahad knew something about what they were doing, but wasn't this going to just get them all executed because there were too many soldiers? Was... this something that they all had to do? Well, Izayoi was definitely going to do it, and she was one of the few who seemed to know the entire plan for this little group, but all Miina had really done was offer some support...

But oh no if Reisa was here then that meant her association would be known! At least, probably. Her outfit stuck out, and unless she wanted to get rid of it--she should definitely help take part. She didn't want to give this up while she was searching the country, and if they were already looking for her... then her best bet was to work with the others for this rescue.

Uh.

Somehow.

... had she ever actually given a good explanation of her skills?

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Fujiwara no Mokou

After being used as a healing source--with some level of irritation, not that feeding the vampire really did much as long as she got to take the shirt off first to avoid staining it too much--Mokou had gone back to doing what she did best: aimlessly patrolling a forested area and avoiding all human contact. As a bonus, this forest wasn't one that needed a guide just for people to not hopelessly wander in circles, so she didn't even have to look out for townspeople.

On the flip side, this also meant dealing with a lot more aggressive animals. And oversized insects. Nothing quite as big as those ridiculous centipedes--although there was no way she'd let one of those get the better of her again--but it was definitely an unusual experience. It even took her back a bit, although she'd usually been the one starting fights in that case...

Like Sanae, she'd caught wind of the traders before they'd arrived--and after going back to the town to see what was up with that, had found out that the bits of dead body she'd been forgetting about her actually worth something? It wasn't like she was a professional hunter, so knowing that was a bit surprising. Instead, Mokou spent the day going back and gathering what she could. Not that there was much, between her methods being quite destructive, other animals, and not having kept track or travelled with much of a pattern in mind...

She'd been about to go back to the forest--she didn't have an interest in the negotiations, and whatever plan the others had about going to the capital would be easy enough to catch up with once they were actually travelling--but these guards...

"They think they're strong, then? Willin' to prove it?" Well, they probably weren't, but if they were, this could be exciting. And what better way to find out how strong the people of this world were really like, after all? Who knows, maybe someone around here might have some unusual way to kill her.

Of course, from the merchant's perspective "skinny girl with burnt sleeves" probably didn't seem all that intimidating. Even if she was oddly excited about this.