Endurance Training

Adventuring life is not new to conflicts and combat. The rise of player combat in the Palace Lander situation has Haru taking it all more seriously. Seriously conflicted. During a morning where his wounds have appropriately healed up from a thrashing that only Cloth Armor - No Defense can appreciate, Haru chims out to Uta to ask if she can give him a hand with some dueling practice. "I have a few new things I want to run by," he chim'd. Having seen her dueling with Fuka he has a pretty good baseline and isn't keen to underestaimate the Slime Lord.

The place is set in a safe spot under System protection so they dont get post-duel ambushing. A training ground fit more for fighters, less so a crafter and loremaster. "So, full disclosure," Haru says as he pulls up the menu for a duel request, "I have a history with this sort of stuff." He doesn't seem to put a lot of PRIDE into it like someone might do if they loved player versus player competition. "But I trust you," he says, putting the command out, "so, don't hold back, okay? If its too much I'll say something and that goes both ways." You don't have to beat someone into submission, there is the conceed option and he is tossing it out there.

"It is understood. I shall not hold back," Uta says with a nod. "War is war. We -will- be treated mercilessly by our opponents. We'd better get used to it in a safe and controlled environment, but not -too- safe and controlled." She swipes through her menu, to accept Haru's invitation to start a consensual duel if Haru invited already, or send one otherwise. "We've got new friends, and we'd better get used to them as soon as possible: fear, pain, suffering. Thinking on our feet." She clicks the confirm button on her menu, and adds a somber, "Having to fight a friend to the death." Luckily, by using the Duel System in root cities, the system will cut everything off as soon as one conestant's HP bar dips into the red.

The hovering interface begins the countdown to the beginning of the duel. She assumes a defensive stance, staff clutched in one hand. "I will give all I've got, as if you had been Crowned. Please do likewise. It's for the best."

Uta is right. The Crowned are not going to hold back. Some of them simply can't and its a reality. Friends could get hurt in the process. People could get hurt trying to compensate for his lack of defenses. Haru's hand is shaking just thinking about it because he needs to let this process. Its a weakness he can't show in front of an enemy and isn't exactly ready to show that to all those close to him. But Uta has a special place in making being imperfect understandable. He takes a deep breath. "Ok," he exhales. A sharp finger points at Uta dramatically. "Angelic Fight!" he says, having to get something to hype him up and its the first thing that came to mind. It slipped out. No thinking. Just do.

The finger pointing isn't just a matter of theatrics. It is meant as a distraction to look at him while the ground grows out vines. The thorny mess rips up as Haru begins his chant, favoring distance between them as his orb glows a pale blue color. "Gelida. Glacies. Terebrare. Inimicus," the Enchanter begins as small frozen rings like a planet's bands form around the orb. With a wide swipe of his hand the rings dash out like a sword's arch, forming into a series of ice projectiles raining across to Uta as if he was firing a machine gun of frozen bullets at her to start the duel off while looking to restrict her movement with the vines.

Uta dashes off to one side, and at the same time, she begins to spin her staff. The wooden implement turns so fast that it effectively deflects all incoming projectiles. She zigs and zags through the barrage, and quckly gains ground through erratic leaps forward. "Icy, feminine. Ice, or ice fields. Darkness. Foe," she repeats, finding a moment for some sort of amusement in the middle of the battle. "Congratulations on the use of Latin. Had already noticed, never got to mention it. Ah, that takes me back... to a past life...", she comments. And then, she begins to sing. A breezy aria, which generates helical tendrils of colorful light on her staff, which coil their way to the gem at the top in sync with the music, and once focused there, bathe the Spriggan in a golden light. As she comes closer to the epicenter of the attack, it is harder to dodge, and a few icicles graze her skin and leave a glowing red sash; the healing spell, however, makes sure that the damage is heals faster than it can be generated.

Closer and closer she gets, and at this point, she swings her staff to hit, while at the same time her melody gets higher and higher in pitch, louder and louder; she's ready to discharge a shockwave in the form of a high C.

"Thank you," Haru says to Uta as she decodes his Chant-o-Ring, "the Enchanter class was a lot easier to do once I started breaking down the chant language charting that worked for Wave Arts." He isn't sure if its true for everyone, but it works for him. As does his fast footwork. The low defense caster is more composed as if the 'Combat Mode' needed time to load. A foot is planted to take the blow, only to launch backwards and catch the sonic attack on the outskirts of the blast. Its enough to rustle his hair and knick down his health as he feels those vibrations in his chest and his heart.

The white haired Artificer has the digital blood pumping now. The pool is just fine when you jump in. Let the adrenaline wash over you. Let the competition sharpen your mind and electrify your actions. Win. At any cost. The monocle stirs, creating lines around the silvery metal lining. Circles begin to form in half completed arches circling around his vision. His attack did nothing, nothing at all. It might discourage some, but it only makes Haru smile. It isn't his Smile, but the kind of face when you find out that you came upon a challenging puzzle to solve. He dig in deeper and keep trying tactics until something sticks.

"Venenum. Somnum. Creatura." the Artificer chants, giving a green glow to his orb, letting the vipers slink out and staring down Uta with the heterochromatic gaze due to the blue eye and purple relic monocle. He knows she knows his Latin. So he knows she has an idea what that is. The spell holds as another voice comes from behind Haru. Something like a haunted recording of Haru's voice, "Tenebris. Cadit. Lunae Lumen. Oriri. Occultare." And then a wave of darkness floods from behind him, sweeping the battlefield in a Castlevania level of darkness. A pale moon sits at the top of the zone, held by a sleepy Dark sprite-cat that watches the fight with her red eyes. That other attack is coming, and it darts like two vipers at night over towards Uta.

Uta was still within Melee range when the area was bathed in darkness. Far from being intimidated, she stands there for a moment, speechless, in sheer admiration of the effect. Her mouth cupped in a small "o" of surprise leaves no doubt that her sense of wonder has been tickled. Could the Dark genetics of her Spriggan Avatar have gotten to her? No, let's not be silly. This is just a game. These aren't real bodies Adventurers are inhabiting.

Are they?

She finds herself quietly translating the words, wording them out loud, distractedly, without even noticing she's doing so: "Poison... Sleep... Creature... Darkness... Falls... Moonlight... Rise...", and at that point, she completely loses track of the battle. She even looks down and away and rubs her chin. "Oh, man. Oriri... was it... what were those verbs with passive conjugation called? Dep... dep something... Deponent! That's it! Man, deponent verbs..." Her smile widens until-

"OW! OW!" She leaps on one foot, trying to shake out the vipers that have sunk their fangs itno the other. "Curse my love for the classic humanities!"

She manages to fling away the adders, but pulsating dark red bite marks all over her immaculate full-leg boot leave no doubt that the poison is stil acting. With a grimace, she slams her staff on the ground, and intones-

...is that J-pop?! It -is- a bouncy J-pop tune, and with each beat, a different opening on the ground, or on the curb of this part of the city is set aglow in pastel neon colors, highlighted like in a music video, until the verse stops, everything goes silent, and she scans, "SE-WER CALL!", with a massive slam of her staff on the ground.

Concentric pastel neon circles extend to wash all over the ground, and from each highlighted sewer access, a flood of slimes pours out, converging towards Haru, bouncing along with the beat of the chorus Uta churns out.

A grave call! With Slimes! Enough to turn a castlevania theme into thriller. "So what you are saying is if I keep casting naturally that I can exploit your love of langauge," the young man grins. He falls into this analytical mode. So far the two have been feeling each other out with jabs. It is time to heat things up. "And you hope to distract me with infectious music of cute slimes. I laugh in the face of that. Ha ha," there should be a third ha but a slime gets stuck in his mouth, smiling on one end before he spits it out and takes a barrage of slime dance greatness. "Ptew, mm, strawberry flavored?" he emotes.

The quick winded attacks of the two bring the mist to a dispersement like a fast moving fan. A flood of slimes will do that to a zone. The dark mist begins to drift upwards as Haru begins to chant, "Somnum Exterreri. Manifestum. Libera. Calamitas. Libera. Noz. Omni." His orb is a charcoal color where he holds it during the chant. The mists rising into the moon and turning it into an Obsidian pearl. A dark arte summon as the sprite disappears behind it and the moon becomes red. The pressure on the battlefield is that of a deep foreboding that seeps into the mind. Anxiety. Pressure. Not something that adorable J-pop mood setting creatures would care for. That would ruin the stage effect, for sure. Haru preceeds the second chant, "Ignis. Sphere. Inimicos" as the charcoal goes from smoke to that of embers of a burning campfire. It roars, growing into a ball of fire that Haru rips out of his Wave Artes towards Uta and the remaining slimes.

The mind is gripped, the melody vacillates. Uta shakes, trembles, shivers rund down her spine, and she retreats. She slips into a minor key bridge without even noticing, and her breathing becomes uncertain. The control over the slimes is weakened, their obsessive converging devolves into a semi-chaotic meandering. Uta's breathing becomes more irregular, her diaphragm doesn't respond correctly. She sweats.

The melody is broken, her staff clatters to the ground, and she falls to her knees, head grasped tightly between her hands, breathing faster and faster. Hyperventilation. "No... no... no... NO...", she crescendoes into yelling, grasped by who knows what ghosts. The slimes originally meant for Haru begin to slither over her, incapacitated and unable to control them with her Monster Handling magic.

Then the flames rain on her, and a shriek of pain and dread emerges from her dark silhouette caught in the middle of the conflagration, while the flames which have already washed over her proceed to shatter the slimes.

This is war. No going easy.

* * *

Then, something happens. One of Uta's hands, trembling, reaches into some sort of hidden pouch, and she pulls out a red, squishy ball. She squeezes it, releases it. Breathe. Squeeze, release. Breathe.

It is a regular squeezing and releasing. "Pila. Constringo. Pacifico," she mutters, as some sort of Mantra, and as time proceeds, the exercise with her stress ball seems to produce the desired effect.

She takes her staff. Slow. Determined. She pushes herself to stand in the middle of the charred disc she was kneeling prone on, and gives the ball a couple last squeezes. Slow. Determined. Inhale. Exhale. Nod.

The little stress ball is replaced into its hidden compartment. The staff is slammed on the ground. She resumes the song from where it was left off. Slow, like a reprise. One sewer entry point lights up. The song continue. A second hole, highlighted.

Then it accelerates. It gets faster, and faster and bouncier, and bouncier, and-SLAM!

Slimes pour out again, and Uta does -not stop-. She cranks up the tempo to the point where one might wonder how she manages to rattle out so much in so little time without tying her tongue into knots and, most importantly, -without breathing-.

Air 3, baby.

The result is that now Haru is faced with an outpour of slimes twice the size as before... and an Uta with the stubborn determination of one who has crawled their way out of the Ultimate Pit of Despair and has come back to return the favor!

The Artificer knows that last attack wasn't fair on an emotional or psychological level. He is an Enchanter. His skillset is going to be like that. The young man's single blue eye levels with Uta. They have to assume they are Crowned right now. People willing to take everything away or use their weaknesses to put others they care about in danger. Every bit of preparation today will matter in the future. He needs to ask for no forgiveness here. The apology comes in the form of a torrent of Slimes that Uta unleasehes in fury. Haru is not afraid of this. The man, in fact, smiles, genuinely. Gets a little glassy eyed at the whole thing that required no words. Now. Begin!

There is a noticible shift with the way Haru fights. He is a caster and would do best with mid, or really back range, positioning. When reflexes kick in he is more inclined to go towards the fight instead of flee. The white haired man starts in the anime-like quick dodging wherein his body phase steps in a brief blur from step to step to try to dodge all of the slimes. Haru is no ninja, he is an Enchanter and a Summoner, so several of the slimes connect their attacks. Several. What is interesting is how he recovers from the attacks, undaunted, able to slide his feet backwards and move to another dodge without being overwhelmed by a plan gone awry. He is relentless, not aiming for a perfect guard, but to give it his all without any doubt to haunt him.

He looks. Alive.

"Venenum. Somnum. Creatura," Haru begins to chant in the middle of his dodging. He is able to focus on casting simple spells in the thick of the assault. Simple spells with short Wave Arte chains to evoke with simple words and motions. It looks like dacncing at times with a violen adding into a steady bass beat of attacks and vocals to tie it together. Two serpents uncoil from his orb and slither on the ground towards Uta below the stream of attacks. One Arte down, one to go. Verse two. Haru doesn't rush it, leaning out of the way of an attack before moving on. "Somnus. Fluctus. Pax." he says with an almost peaceful exhale of his breath that cuts the tension from the last escalation. There is no visual effect initially. It all comes later like a sugar crash. It is a sleepy, addling feeling debuffing his opponents that need to keep an eye on where the snakes are. The vipers use it as a signal to bare their fangs and strike before disappearing into a greenish mist.

Uta's eyes feel heavy. Heavier. Her lyrics becomes slurred, her stance teeters, and at one point her head even falls on her chest. She has to shake herself awake multiple times, to no avail. The drowsiness takes her, and she ends up asleep, forearms propped up by the 'wings' decoration of her staff, face resting against the gem. The snakes, once again, sink their teeth on Uta's legs.

This gets her to open her eyes once again, but it is hard, so hard to stay awake... despite the pain...

With whatever is left of ther alertness, -turns- the staff 180 degrees, with the attack side of the gem pointed at herself, she intones a jingle. It's meant to be quick and catchy, but in her current state, it sounds more like a lullaby. Blue tendrils rotate slowly on the handle of her staff, in sync with the tune, focus on the jewel atop it and...

* GLGEPLEPFPELGGLLLG GLLG GURLGLE PFPFF *

Uta is *BLASTED* across the square by a massive jet of water, while the staff goes flying off in the opposite direction, like a giant shower head run amok. It flies, it spins in the air, it's an erratic, unpredictable projectile hurtling towards Haru. Uta sputters, coughs, and shakes her head, drenched. "...best I could do in a pinch, *GAH*. Definitely need to learn a Coffee Song for the future."

She stands up, sputters one last time, and noticing her staff is serendipitously working as an erratic projectile, she hurries to intone a dark, ominous chant, to activate an energy-sapping beam along with the out of control jet of water.

Expect anything. Expect. ANYTHING. Haru didn't classify a rogue Spriggan on a water ride in that category of 'Anything'. Who could? His head is bolted backwards as it is clocked with one end of Uta's staff. It gives a resounding 'Thonk' that comes with water and a blazing headache. Water everywhere. "Ahhhh hahaha," Haru starts laughing. He wants to take it seriously but this would be set just as well on a beach or pool scene with a runaway waterhose. The man holds his arms over him to protect as they glow a faint dark aura of defensive coating from the very real damage it can do. The young man catches his breath. Huff huff.

"I think you are doing just fine," Haru takes those last moments to breathe while he is soaked from head to toe. Water droplets drip drip drip from his white hair. "Just fine." His head shakes the droplets off while walking closer to Uta. They are still in a duel, but it doesnt mean it can't be fun, too.

The whole thing reinforces why he needs to work on a better version of the spell. "You know, the crystal resonation research didn't yield DIRECT fruit, but it did give me an idea for something else." Haru has been meaning to mention this. Since the crystals enchant at a variable frequency, it might be possible to add it to the defensive coat that he just used to produce a better effect. Wave Arte research is relentless, even if it keeps him away from his Accessory time making fun little trinkets for people. "But more importantly." Was the whole dialog a ruse? He reaches a finger out to go to Uta's lips. Shhh shhh. Hush now.

Go the deuce to sleep, Uta.

It turns out his 'go to Sleep' attempts are not done. "Somnus. Fluctus. Pax," he repeats in a hypnosis level chant. Haru continues! Sleep. Sleeeep. You want to curl into bed and take a long nap. Nappp...

Of course, that isnt the end of it. What goes good with water? No. Not.... Not electricity! Haru takes a step back and snaps his fingers like some cartoon villain. It causes a Shock to zap as if he put a battery right at her feet and snapped the clamps in place. It even has a fingergun and 'Chk-Chik' sound effect as the chant from Haru as the Wave Art.

"Oh, I'm glad it led to something!", Uta beams. "See, I was also planning something else to do with that. I am researching into why power paths cause people strain of the vocal cords on overuse, and if regular medical examination through a stethoscope turns inconclusive, I was considering an inspection in the domain of magical resonance."

She diverts her attention from casting an Air Arte to blow-dry herself in the shortest amount of time possible. A BLAST of air rushes past her from above, drying her in seconds while she hugs herself tight and shivers. "GGGHH... Need... to... learn... Fire... Need... Warm... Air..."

Once she's presentable again, and the staff's water spell has run its course, leading to her weapon to clatter to the ground once again, Uta returns to face Haru. This is the moment for the 'But more importantly'

Uta is taken by surprise at Haru reaching for her. Tense and flustered at having her lips touched, she goes red in the face, and-. She tires to flail, to protest, to run... but she can't. She's fixed in place. Hypnosis. With the barest sliver of consciousness she still clings tenuously to, she's aware of the chant. She's aware that her will is powerless . She's aware she's... being... she's... going...

Her eyes roll up, and, chin held up, her body collapses to the ground with slight twisting motion, limp.

There is no peace for the Duelists, though, as demonstrated when the Spriggan is jolted awake by Haru's attack, and leaps in the air like one of Galvani's frogs.

"THE HECK WAS THAT!!", she exclaims, and instinctively hijacks the situation to turn the lightning at her advantage. She zips past Haru in a blur of crackling blue energy, reaches for where her staff is, thinks of what happened, and all color drains from her face. "No! Touching! The! Lips!", she eclaims, each word a swing at Haru, each word not only returning her color to her face, but making her flush redder. "No! Making! People! Unconscious! That's rude!", Uta exclaims, as she rushes towards Haru to whack him upside the head multiple times. "What would Fuka say if she were to learn that you went straight for my lips and hypnotized me into sleeping next to you!?"

...Uta must have been spending too much time with Fuka, it seems.

It was worth it. So worth it. Haru is laughing so hard while getting the Fuka level of response from a red-faced Uta. Seems his real strength isnt might or magic, but in getting quality reactions like this. "Haha. Uta, your Fuka is showing," he says, to denote that Uta is acting quite Fuka right now.

Haru's left arm comes up as ablative obsidian rocks forming along his forearms. He goes to shield the blows with a magical vambraces. The right arm shields up from another strike. It looks very much like a boxer's tight defense against a flurry of blows. What is left of the earthen defense crumbles to the ground. So stronk! "I think Fuka would say something like 'Hey, why wasn't I invited?' before giving me a pouty glare or something spicier," he tries to stop laughing. He succeeds within margins so he can continue on with his 'master plan'.

Now the Artificer's typical fighting style involves evasive dodges. Haru's armor is rather light. This time he is anchoring down with Earth magic. Shiny stones crumble to the ground like dark glass shards. "Lets try this o/` One. More. Time. o/`" he says in a singsong voice as he kicks backwards. In true fantasy fashion, the young Artificer gets a bit of air in his jump, hovering there with a downward angle. The force of the psuedo-ninja leap kicks up the obsidian shards into the air.

The Human is having a lot more fun with the duel now. He had some things to process and get past, but Uta is helping him with that. The progress shows in the way he moves in a graceful 360 spin in the air during his leap. Acrobatics check? Success. A glowing blue ring appears around him. "Gelida. Glacies. Terebrare. Inimicus." With each word from Haru's lips, the circle detaches into blueish shards with a sound like the cracking of ice sheets. Cold, ice-borne swords form around him. A hand reaching out and down to Uta dramatically. His monocle homes in with those circles forming white lines against the purple. Target locked on. Missiles Engage! The fist closes and a torrent of ice shards and rogue obsidian debris litters the battlefield near Uta.

Uta looks confused for a moment, but when Haru mentions that her inner Fuka is showing, the layers and layers of innuendo finally become apparent to her. Yes, cue blushing so hard Uta looks like she took massive cheek damage.

Indecipherable yelps of protests are choked in her throat, with an additional psychological hit when Haru offers the expected reaction of Fuka.

She stands there, in a defensive stance, as Haru shows off his air techniques. She doesn't take her eyes off him, even later when he does his 360 spin in the air. She waits for the right moment, watchful.

The fusillade of icicles does it. She leaps upwarrds, and zigzags so quick she's seen one moment in one place, then suddenly another, and another, and another... it's as if she keeps disappearing and reappearing, and somehow -dodging- all those frozen bullets. In the meantime, she sings, she sings her usual song of Healing, that golden beam envelopes her, restoring health, and then, as her ascent proceeds, she switches gears. Tendrils of blue dance on her staff, coalesce on the gem, and she -sweeps- her staff all around during the last seconds of her rising motion, encompassing all those projectiles that were about to shatter on the ground in a ribbon of cerulean light, which holds them in place, unmoving.

Time seems to slow down and stop entierely as she describes the last inches of her ascending parabola; now almost 'sprawled' in the air, she turns to Haru, reaches for his lips with her finger, and as they're about to touch them-

"Inverto!", she exclaims, as she pulls her finger up to flick Haru's nose with the intention of leaving a tiny magical sphere of light sticking to it (with a 'crosshairs' pattern of lines on its surface), and simultaneously pulls her staff-holding arm up, in a movement that yanks the blue sash of magic up, like a slingshot, to fire the capturred shards back at the focus 'crosshairs' sphere, while Uta begins her downward trip downards and away from the Artificier.

Dang! Haru concludes with the second test that a fast opponent like Uta is too nimble for that combination of an attack. That is VERY good information to know if the fight became life or death. On the same topic of 'life or death', Haru has to handle a bunch of reflected projectiles at him now. "Well shi..." and the rest is cut short by the assault. Dakka Dakka Dakka. That one does a number on him with nowhere to dodge and needing access to the Earth to do more stable defenses. He descends with a look at his health bar being throughly trashed at this point. He puts a hand up.

"Not sure what it'll do if you take the last of my health here," he admits as he is hovering around 10 percent, "but I can safely say that this duel is yours." He walks on over to Uta, "Thank you for taking the time today, Uta. I may have lost today, but I have won a lot more than I could ever hope to explain in words. I'll need that if I'm not going to cause Fuka to worry about me in combat." That... was his reason? He extends a hand over to her to congratulatethe win, "And my friends, too. You are all precious to me and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I put them in harms way so carelessly."

Uta lands kneeling on the floor, fist down, the way superheroes and squirrels do. She was quite proud of her last move. In fact, she was even showing off a bit there; she had found her rhythm and she was enjoying the ride, when Haru calls the duel off. Uta spins her staff, and places it to rest on her shoulder, as she opens her menu and calls off the fight. "Oh, when using the Duel System, the fight would be automatically cut off when reaching a threshold specified in advance. A winner will be declared. Nobody dies. That's why the Duelist League always uses-" Uta blinks. "Wait, aren't you in the Duelist League? If you aren't, you should. You get to fight against all sorts people using the safe Duel System of the root cities, and you even get prizes at the end of each month you participate. It's, like, not only free training, they -pay- you to train."

Uta bows back in gratitude to Haru. "Thanks to you," she reciprocates. "I don't think Fuka will have to worry. You are a worthy opponent. You were a real challenge." She looks away, in the distance, tapping her chin. "And yes, that is why is important that all of us train properly. Well, the main reason is 'so that we don't get killed', of course, but not worrying our friends is also important."