EmptyArmor

Knight and Dragon: A Clash of Wills (EmptyArmor vs. Takashi)

The rush of battle reached a crazed tempo, and the knight of Columbia was forced to the wall. With all his might, Daniel dragged both shield and dragon through the dirt, leaving a rut in the gravel as the monolith next to them screamed in time to this decisive moment. However, the blood red assassin had been well prepared for the counterattack, and its strength proved too much for Daniel to cut off the deadly strike of its tail in time. As Daniel pivoted to face the rumbling tower of iron, the dragon's third talon struck forth to meet him, and the veteran of the apocalypse was forced to grit his teeth and bleed. He realized that the dragon had been too strong, too heavy to be moved-- if it came down to it, he'd have to stay open to the incoming blow, in order to avoid the possibility of getting skewered in a weak spot. The tip and edge of the razor sharp sword scraped across his breastplate and against his side, dealing a nasty gash into the armor across the ribs on his left side. He was silent in his pain, so the monolith shouted for him, its tremendous vibrations all but shaking the ground beneath the two warriors. As things stood, the dragon had sunk its claws into the knight's shield, and one of its blades had tasted his flesh, with yet further dangers ready and waiting. In this moment, it would be the best Daniel could do to fight this losing battle to the bitter end, and punish what he could.

The knight had already committed to a strike at Talon's exposed armpit, which would likely be summarily blocked by the bone blade the dragon kept in its left. This was acceptable, as the well trained warrior could easily shift his weight back and maintain control over his movements in the neutral space between the two swords. However, Daniel had a further gamble to make. As the blade impacted his chest, he pivoted his shoulders further towards his left, turning towards the monolith even further to stand almost in profile to the dragon. This small maneuver allowed him to take the stab from the tail as carefully as possible, reducing the chances that it would puncture vitals. Furthermore, Daniel had more or less completed his most immediate objective, to force the dragon within a human arm's length of the monolith. It had the cunning of communist to be sure, but its speed when moving such a large body would logically be slightly less than Daniel's own. As Daniel stepped forward to deal a stab, he followed through with the momentum by ducking down behind his shield, which had been pivoted outward to face the monolith as well as the bomb attached to it. He held his breath as he crouched on the balls of his feet, leading with his right knee up and his left knee trailing on the ground, his right arm bent to the ready as it pulled back from the extension of his strike and and his left arm strapped behind his shield. While the dragon's tail and the bone blade it held was behind him, another blow wouldn't be faster than an explosion at point blank range. Furthermore, Daniel could use his own sword for defense as well, should the mythical monster attempt to catch him with a stab or a kick for daring to protect himself. Worst came to worst, Daniel also had the option of ripping the straps that secured his shield to his arm, which could be necessary if the assassin attempted to close in with a vicious stab to the back or anywhere near his neck. It wouldn't have been the first time that the Shield of Columbia had to ditch his namesake for the moment to better protect his homeland. Daniel gripped his shield tighter as if it were a bit to chew, ready to release it at an instant's notice. This was gonna hurt, but it had to be done.

Click.

BOOM.

Storm of Blood

You can say that Karvos came upon the exchange as the last blows were being traded, but I want to give you the heads up that I won't write it that way. I'm the last one in the rotation for the round, and each round has been more or less simultaneous so far, so I'm reasonably gonna have time to kill Kahn's character and reposition.

Ink and Blood (Empty Armor vs. Doc Doctor)

A cross of wills, and a moment of decision. Tanya dove down against the icy cobblestones, black ink chasing white clouds of breath as she grasped for her chance at survival. She grasped at the hilt of her knife, channeling the last of her energy, the last scraps of her fear into the feathers she'd left behind, when a slab of cold metal slammed into her vision with a clang. That was the last sound she heard. The reflection of moonlight, a silhouette of combat stained across the metal the last thing she saw. Blindly she flung out the last Feathers of Innocence, her magic burying itself in Zande's back to rip his soul from his body. The cannibal had taken her arm just below the elbow, somehow mustering the presence of mind to react to her guile. She neither knew nor cared. Fate is cruel, and demons even more so, as Zande would soon learn from the Rules Snake that was already feasting on his life.

Knight and Dragon: A Clash of Wills (EmptyArmor vs. Takashi)

Cool, thank you. I'll toss a response up soon.

Knight and Dragon: A Clash of Wills (EmptyArmor vs. Takashi)

@Takashi

Yeah, that would work to keep things as close as possible to what's already there. So, just to make sure I'm reading this right, the both of them have the pillar to the side, on Daniel's left and Talon's right?

Knight and Dragon: A Clash of Wills (EmptyArmor vs. Takashi)

@Takashi

Alright, I hear what you're saying as far as Talon not having any real momentum, I probably read too far into that. My issues with the post are that Talon seems to be reacting to Daniel turning the in the wrong direction, that my post has Daniel trying to force a change in positioning. I'unno if it was clear, but I wrote that Daniel reacts to the grab by twisting his body and jerking Talon back before he has his shield forced down. Like you said, nobody just stands there and lets an opponent do whatever-- Daniel is resisting the shield push, not ignoring it.

Ink and Blood (Empty Armor vs. Doc Doctor)

Each of her tattoos was a story of survival. Her body was covered in them, and as her eyes narrowed at the cannibal, she was unshakably certain that she would add one more when she got out of this one alive. She too, was no fool-- for one, it be idiocy to commit her last spell to a move that she was well aware the cannibal could dodge. No, this Binding Contract wasn't a trap. It was bait.

Zande made a monstrous leap over the last spell Tanya had the strength to write into the world, and brought the axe down like a thunderbolt. With all the speed that Tanya had, the same burst of acceleration that had let her dodge Zande's ferocious kick, she dove low as he jumped high and stretched her fingers out to her dropped knife. She gripped the handle as the axe came down and focused her will to the blade, flinging the handful of feathers that stuck to it like shrapnel from underneath and behind the crazed cannibal. The Hot Steppa would probably bury itself next to her left shoulderblade at the same time her last feathers sliced through Zande's skin, but with the patterns of her wings still floating behind her, she prayed it wouldn't be fatal. This was one more desperate move-- the last she made before she felt the velvet of unconsciousness press at the edges of her vision.

Knight and Dragon: A Clash of Wills (EmptyArmor vs. Takashi)

@Takashi

Okay, I think that you've misunderstood my post. Daniel pivoted into Talon's momentum, rotating his body towards his own left side.

Daniel obviated the setup by simply pivoting into the dragon's charge, throwing all of its focused weight to his left as he turned like a door, and forcing its momentum back against the pillar behind him.

@EmptyArmor

Furthermore, Talon should retain at least some momentum, based on the fact that he charged at Daniel. If that's absolutely not the case and Talon attempted to collect himself before grabbing the shield, there was no mention that he attempted to make his footing solid after his charge. Because of this, it's not unreasonable for Daniel to move Talon back as long as Talon's got a good grip on the shield, since Talon weighs roughly 400-500 pounds.

His strength is such that he can toss weights of up to five hundred pounds with relative ease, can push or kick loads of up to half a ton without apparent strain

@EmptyArmor

Talon should definitely be able to react if Daniel resists the shield push, which he is, but that can't be done in the same instant as grabbing the shield, per:

Talon once again dashed forward to meet his opponent, but this time he did not intend to have a contest of brute strength.

@Takashi

Ink and Blood (Empty Armor vs. Doc Doctor)

Her heart beating wildly in her chest, Tanya made the only counter she could. The axes flicked up at the speed of thought, and Zande rushed her with the fury of a sudden squall. Tanya's only move was to drop her Quill, feathers of innocence wrapped about the tiny blade, and press her left palm into the ground. She strained herself to create one more Binding Contract, wide and broad enough to catch the hunter unless he attempted to stomp her into the stones. It was forged in less than half a second to last less than one, enough time and effort and magic to stick one of the cannibal's thunderous boots to the floor. She hoped against hope it would be enough to create the opening she needed, and yet the determination to survive burned in her eyes. That glint. Perhaps Zande would see it, a challenge from a will that could match his insanity, potion or not.

FRAMEs (Mech combat, political intrigue & corporate struggles)

Bernard had all but run over a kid playing with a padd, definitely not what the aging pilot wanted to see when he was in the mood for some liquor. He bent forward to hear what the kid was saying, nodded stonefaced as he soaked in the fact that he'd just missed everybody. He was about to grumble before offering the chico a smoke, but before he could respond, his Codec started yelling at him. He pressed his knuckles into his temples-- he didn't have to check the specifics to know what it was trying to tell him. If he moved like a tank before, he moved like a faster tank now, keeping his curses to himself as he tried to turn the damn thing off. He burst into the frantic activity of the Samigina hangar, everybody scrambling to battlestations, the pilots expected to scramble at a moment's notice. Unlucky that most of the rest of the crew had gone out for drinks, but as he strapped into the new and improved Snake Eater, the old man felt a certain amount of freedom. There was just a battle ahead, no orders, no need to hold back. He caught a glance of Ryder near her machine as he climbed into the cockpit, and grinned. A girl raised by the old guard huh? It hadn't been in Cecilia's notes, but B.F.F. could recognize a countryman, a real countryman, when he saw one. He threw out the salute of the old Emarran State in case she'd catch it, and with a clang of his hatch, he was on his way.

---

He took in the smoke of the battlefield first, letting it mix with the taste of his foul smelling cigarettes. It wasn't as good as a stiff drink, but it wasn't so bad. At the moment he was acting as a vanguard, his only aim to sow chaos behind enemy lines. Truth be told, he was a lot more comfortable when the chips were down and the alarms were going off-- he could count the times when everything had gone perfectly on one hand, but he'd kept all his fingers so far by being able to handle things when a battle developed as per the usual pandemonium. Bernard's Handou rumbled down Highview Street, a stone rolling through a river. It was something of a shame that the city streets had turned into a battlefield. Another fifteen minutes or so of this, and a river wouldn't be such a bad way to describe the alleyways of Hamarr. Snake Eater rumbled low to the ground as Bernard caught his first mark, the old soldier keeping the engine gunning even lower, trying to keep his heat and noise down. B.F.F had the mechanics of piloting a FRAME down to a sweet, sweet science, and knew a few tricks that he'd decided to let Elaine and the rest of the younger guns figure out for themselves.

First thing was that he could more or less mask his heat signature by running his engine in fits and bursts, letting it push his machine and cruise until he'd just started to run down on momentum. The concept was similar to driving a stick shift, not that any of the younger pilots would know. Heat vision for a large, non-organic shape like a FRAME was conducted in stages-- unlike a human body that was constantly painted with radiant heat, heat signatures are usually tracked at a FRAME's center of mass, where the core and engines are located. By letting the heat rise and fall, Bernard could create an iffy looking heat signature, difficult to notice and even more tricky to target blind. More than that, there were two reasons why his controls vibrated when he snored. First, because he'd practiced so well with them that they had started to loosen; usually it was something that would be tuned up during regular maintenance before it got nearly as bad as shaky controls, but Sigint and the rest of the shop crew knew well and good that loose was the way that Old Snake liked it. Second, he'd deliberately kept and forced a certain lack of responsiveness in his controls-- roughly 1.972 seconds of input latency, he'd be able to tell you if anyone bothered to ask. This would be very important, when the old man was snoring, he preferred to take things slow.

Well, there were actually three reasons that his controls shook when he snored. The man snores damn loud.

!

Target spotted. Bernard recognized the hulking silhouettes of two Barghests through the windows of the high rise, the clear, modern lines of rich architecture framing a picture of screaming office workers and all too human terror. B.F.F. took another long drag of his cigarette; it was going to be a long day before this mess got sorted out. He turned in his cockpit to see the glint of metal roaring down the crowded city streets. Looks like the cavalry had arrived!

As Bernard watched the detachment of Preying Panthers engage in battle, he took stock of the way they moved in coordination. A new FRAME he hadn't seen before was extending way past the main body of friendly forces, with Jupiter Grounded and Cecilia's Kirin not far behind. Fortunately, the kitten had made first contact with the enemy; were it anybody else, Bernard was sure that they would've been shredded. He could feel the vibration of her commands as she screamed that she'd made contact, but by then, the Snake Eater was already moving. With practiced timing, the veteran Handou swung the AFC-40/L over the shoulder where it had been mounted and into the window in front of it, spraying glass into the lobby of the building the first two enemy soldiers had decided to use for cover. Bernard took care to wedge the autocannon steady against the steel beams that had artfully supported the building's structural integrity, steadying its recoil without fully clamping down on its capacity to spray. Bernard watched kept a religious eye on the environment around him as well as his immediate radar, flicking switches with terse decision to apply active camouflage to his craft. He wanted to be prepared for attack and defense with something that was like the old sneaking suits that soldiers used to use, but in the time it took for him to manipulate his craft to pick a piece of rebar from the ground, the strange FRAME had more or less attempted to pounce on the enemy! No time left!

Snake Eater flicked the safety on its autocannon to full-auto and pulled the trigger before jamming the piece of rebar behind the trigger guard. It was a distraction that would keep that crazy pilot from being shredded immediately by one Barghest if their attempts to melee the other succeeded, even if it would only last the scant few seconds it would take to empty the clip. Thankfully it was enough to buy the rookie time to make it to the other side of the street, and just enough time for Bernard to position Snake Eater at the opposite corner to Cecelia, watching the intersection ahead. Suppressive fire coming from out of the fucking wall; Bernard felt some satisfaction in how cruel of a surprise a fight in the city could be. Even if it meant that the enemy soldier's first reaction would be to rain bullets into the office building, it was move that kept one of his "kids" safe for the moment. A moment was all he had after-all, as three more Barghests made their way in a wedge formation into the intersection from the left. They hadn't noticed Snake Eater yet because of his trick with his engine, but they seemed to be moving to flank the main body. It'd be only a few more seconds before one of them had a good chance of catching B.F.F. in line of sight, active camouflage or not. If Bernard was going to intercept any of them, he'd have to move soon.

SNAKE EATER 120.85: "Hahaha, how bad do things look out there, Jupiter Grounded? Keep talking to us, looks like we got three bogeys on our eleven. Do me a favor and tell the kitten I'm going to push up this lane as you push yours-- send me some cover?"