Raineh Daze

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Cazt Gardens

"One of those quirks of being born with far too much mana, I'm afraid; our height tends to extremes either way," the man said, continuing his inspection of the bush. Now that Fionn was close, the rather dwarfed-looking pruning shears were apparent as he continued to clip away at the plant. "My eldest daughter was particularly tall. So was Miss Radistirin's mother, when we could find enough resources to corroborate. Illness might be a contributing factor, yet it could hardly be considered conclusive..."

For a legendary warrior, the old man seemed to have an academic streak. After a minute more of quietly clipping away, he rose up, pocketing the shears, and gave Fionn a studious gaze before his eyebrows rose in some sort of recognition.

"So, you're one of those current Iron Roses? I owe your generation a great debt."

@The Otter

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Candaeln Courtyard

"Hm, you nearly had it that time," Florian said, rubbing some imagined speck of dirt off his blade. At least after the first spars that Fleuri had asked for, the man had elected to stop his usual trick of mirroring the younger knight's own approach to combat back at him. Knowing how to defeat yourself was all well and good, but you weren't going to be fighting your doppelganger any time soon. Or at least, not often enough for it to be essential.

It would also make for a pretty poor way to improve on exploiting openings if your opponent insisted on showing you how good you could be to the point there wasn't much left to exploit.

Instead, he'd been going through the styles of who knew how many other people, generally leaning more towards naked aggression. While the still level remained higher than Fleuri was perhaps used to, Florian had at least noted he wasn't correcting all the errors that came from not adapting it to his own height or reach, or restraining the aggression to something that would make it easier to cover any gaps. Perhaps annoyingly, it still meant being stabbed a lot.

"Now, if you can tag me this time, then we'll have the rest of the afternoon for something else. I believe they're setting up for a festival tonight?" Some things, however, he'd probably not stop without asking directly.

---

Outside Talderia

Spear on the other side of Renar, nothing in his hand; while the man was clearly capable of responding in time--he'd done enough course corrections to show that avoiding those seemingly-committed charges weren't perfectly straight and his reflexes were able to keep up--there wasn't seemingly much that he could respond with, even freeing one hand from the spear.

Until another blast shot out of that. Almost a pleasant experience after everything from the spear--or worse, the waves of energy that Daybreaker kept firing--but nonetheless a magical blast capable of stripping clothing and burning flesh. Also, quite importantly, fully capable of knocking a grown man flying, making the attempt at stabbing Parvan in the neck quite futile.

"Well, if nothing else, you've certainly improved already. But since neither of us has the benefit of restoring to full health every few minutes, we're going to need to stop for a break," Edwin noted. Then paused. "Maybe head back to Candaeln. I didn't think we'd be out here long enough to worry about lunch."

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Front Team

With the intervention by Numako, the seeming stalemate between the warrior monk and the monstrous centipede was broken, with the shapeshifting anomaly coming out on top. Sadly, as the warrior monk turned into goop, it didn't seem like it was aware of or even responding to the irony of the entire situation. The few reinforcements that came too late didn't offer much more than a pokey distraction.

Of course, now that Arisa was outright cutting them in half, and being supported by Zhao, their offence had gone from flanking to a two-pronged attack and it seemed like they were overwhelming the enemy once again.

Except. Except not all of the sludge had been cleared away, and some of it was reforming into the very enemies that had already been defeated, spearmen bristling as they went in on the flanking team for an encirclement, and an arquebusier formerly shot in the head raising its loaded gun at the girl from behind.

---

Sakura

"I'm not allowed to drop anomalies or possible anomaly constructs in random places, that becomes an Incident," Sakura stressed, the small girl shrugging at the offer. And then letting out a particularly aggravated squeak at the flashbomb. Now she couldn't see anything, and that made doing anything clever with positioning or restraints quite impossible.

Which meant the next portal in front of her let forth more of a torrent of writhing limbs, disgorging more and more vaguely in the area of the attacking ashigaru for only a second or two before she cut the thing off. She didn't want to risk that the other agents would get hurt, after all... and being maybe hit by a destructive alien limb was definitely better than being definitely stabbed by a ghost soldier, right?

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Candaeln Gardens

"I think that being friends with someone doesn't require them to be useful," Lilette added, the elf's eyes getting a slightly faraway look, "Or in some cases even if they're actively unhelpful. Not even considering children... even now, my daughter's quite a handful."

She brushed her green hair behind an ear, thinking on the question. "Summoners are very rare in here. I think there might be only one, if you go to the mage's college and ask around then she might be willing to help. She has no affiliation to the Roses or Thaeln, so she may be reluctant to help..."

---

Candaeln Stables

"Ah? Of course, littler captain," the huge blond man said, turning away from where he was patting an equally massive horse. Could something so big even count as a warhorse? But it didn't have the proportions or air of a workhorse. "Want to get a drink? I thought you had been training over with Lilette."

Not that he was really waiting for an answer, one arm gently pushing her along in case Fanilly got too nervous to follow along towards the kitchens.

@VitaVitaAR

---

Outside Talderia

"Now, why would I ever do that?" Edwin asked, raising an eyebrow, "If I did that, I'd be predictable, and you wouldn't learn anything, would you?"

Of course, before he had even gotten to the 'predictable', Parvahn had chosen to strike again--but this time, it wasn't by rocketing around, it was by his spear releasing a lance of blue energy. One that exploded quite dramatically when it hit its eventual target. Now Renar had to bear in mind that it was entirely possible for the magical attack to come from either direction--and while Edwin's blade was easier to avoid than Parvahn's charging, he didn't need to do anything fancy to keep the pressure up with normal attacks.

It wasn't like a dragon was going to be kind enough to stick to one attack or another.

Of course, when they got him again, Edwin would attack straight away. Variety, even if predictable, was his aim.

@Psyker Landshark

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Outside Talderia

As they arrived back at the broad clearing that had briefly been turned into a cloud-piercing plateau, what appeared to be an identical copy of Edwin's blade was leaning against a tree, making it clear that the Witch was still observing what was going on in here. Nonetheless, the knight moved with definitely unnecessary sword to swap the two, hefting the provided sword with a grin.

"Well, I guess we get to play with the real thing, not an emulation..." he said, golden fire flickering into life around the blade as it was raised up. When the blade came slashing down... well, it was probably a good thing that he was showing it off first, the wave of golden light racing across the clearing leaving a clearly grassless furrow. And one or two less trees on the far side.

As for Parvan's demonstration... that was considerably more understated, although it didn't seem much less destructive on the receiving end: one second the spear was gleaming with a pale blue light, the next he was a blur--and another tree was looking rather shattered.

"So, once you can avoid these with any consistency, there should be no problems with dragonfire. Still up for it?"

@Psyker Landshark

---

Cazt Estate

Answering the door was... well, it wasn't Erich Cazt. No, the man had a quiet, nebbish air to him, not to mention being far too small to be the legendary warrior. Nor, if the family's reputation and extant members were anything to go by, was he likely a Cazt of any stripe. Almost certainly a servant, rather than a noble with an unusual taste for simple dress.

"If you're looking for His Grace, he can be found in the gardens," the man said, confirming what his job was. There was a pause. "Things are so regrettably rearranged here, they should really be closer..."

The directions given weren't terribly complicated, although it was another walk to some expansive gardens that should properly have been surrounding the Cazt estate, which may have done a lot to explain why the building looked out of place. Unlike the garden in its modern incarnation, or indeed the efforts expended within Candaeln as Fionn knew it, this was far more like wandering into the countryside--although, with enough deliberate design aesthetics, and a proliferation of aesthetically pleasing plants, to show that it was still maintained by human hands.

Identifying Erich Cazt in such a place was easy; although the man was wearing clothes more appropriate for a knight of modest means, there was no avoiding the size, even with his age. Chin-length silver hair brushed back over his head and a neat, pointed full beard added to the impression of age... but honestly, the hair colour might have been original as it was.

And once he was closer, the gold eyes were familiar. It seemed that at least some of the family had been inheriting them to the modern day.

As for his attention, that was on a flowering bush of some sort.

@The Otter

Fate/Illuminate Histoire

Church

"Quiet." "Demure." "Didn't draw too much attention to herself." All laudable goals, maybe even theoretically obtainable if Nero had been asked about them beforehand. But she hadn't been, which meant that almost as soon as the door was thrown open, a certain short blonde was flouncing up to them, giving a boisterous welcome.

"... oh, and Leah says 'Why would I know what can go on focaccia? I don't know, cheese?'," the other blonde added, Italian accent swapping to an imitation of an English one as she relayed what could only be the Overseer's apparent lack of strong interest in whatever her Master was planning to cook.

After a moment's pause, she carried on, "Can I get you anything to drink?"

Inside the church, and specifically within the bounded fields established, she didn't give off the impression of a Servant. Although, she was still loud, and very... inappropriately dressed. A scandalously short dress didn't seem quite at home inside a church.

Then again, neither did the war's overseer drinking from a can of cheap beer over by the altar, only now looking up to see who had come in.

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Front Team

With Terakoma tearing up the ashigaru, it seemed like reinforcements were specifically coming in to slow the monster down, the spear-wielding opponents not providing much of a threat, but their persistence--and the occasional prod--were unerringly leading her away from the frontal assault that she had initiated and down a side path. One comparatively free of arquebusiers, with those not yet destroyed electing to ignore the whatever-the-hell-it-was and focus on the more human agents.

One thing that wasn't focusing those down was an unexpectedly solemn looking figure. Somewhat armoured, true, but more notably covered with its head covered in some sort of white robe--and, shockingly, the naginata it was using was actually deflecting the wild attacks that had disposed of so many.

That wasn't to say that the others were being given an easy route in; Arisa's flanking manoeuvre had been met with a surprising reserve of sword-wielding opposition, preventing the increasingly-ragged firing line from being entirely wiped out. And the remaining arquebusiers were now using cover as they reloaded, making further pickoffs increasingly unlikely--and meaning that the remainder of the frontal squad was, of course, being shot at.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

"I thought the pair of us could give you practice against something... well, it's not quite dragonfire, but I reckon it'd be similar enough for any practical purpose."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

"About over there," Cyrus answered, pointing... well, it was a good ways down the street, but the change from white stone to nearly white stone marked it out. Honestly, if the city wasn't so gleaming, the pale grey would probably have blended in. "The rare buildings from other places tend to be close together."

@The Otter

---

"Wait for a better day." Edwin answered with a shrug, pausing to let out a shrill whistle, "When she gets like that, she'll act when she has to, but I've never seen anyone pull her out of it enough to be helpful. Goddesses know that Cyrus has kept at it here, too, but that's not gone any better. If the best him and the captain have done is getting her to drop the statue impression and at least stay active..."

He trailed off as Parvan jogged up, ducking a casual swing as the other knight grumbled about not being a bloody dog. Even if he answered the call.

At least it didn't take long to catch up on what they were doing. Or why they'd been talking about Tyaethe.

"I'd not ask her for training, anyway," Parvan added, the pair now going back out through the entrance and along the trail they'd first come in from. His eyes scanned Renar again to check. "No offence, but you're not the 'overwhelming power' type, and that's all she's really good for teaching unless you want to know the habits of particular beasts." Except, one must assume, dragons beyond the blindingly obvious. "Good for practising against once you've caught up some more, though."

@Psyker Landshark

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

"Ah, don't worry about things like that where an elf's concerned. As long as she's getting something out of it, time's always going to be on her side. She can manage a little inefficiency here or there. Her mum was the same way when she joined--not all shy like, but she'd give the squires lots of pointers, even if Flori or the captain would be better practice. I wasn't surprised when she picked up healing."

The blonde man blinked a few times at the change in conversation, stopping at a roadside stall to pick up something while he thought it over.
"Probably? There's a couple of trees, I can't say I know if it's the same one. You should ask Lilette something like that. Or Shorty, once you get out."