Planeswalker Test Arena D

The arena was blank, featureless, and gloomy. A lone Navi (wearing a distant expression) stood off to one side. Fairly bland in appearence for a custom Navi, he simply waited for the participants to make themselves ready for the battle to come.

Admin Navi (???): "When all participants have arrived and declared themselves ready, we will begin the first round of the test.........Hopefully."
Pianissimo landed silently on one side of the arena. "Looks like this is the place," he said in his usual quiet voice.
"Well, that was easy."

Pianissimo looked around at the arena. No real features, gloomy atmosphere...perfect. No distractions. Nonetheless, he couldn't help wonder what kind of navi his ally would be this time. The name Divinity suggested a priest or cleric themed navi, but he couldn't be sure.
A bright light appeared in the sky as Divinity fell from the sky with wings spread out. Slamming her feet down on the ground, causing the earth crack slightly, she stood up straight quickly after that and looked at Pianissimo. "Yoh," she said with a smile on her face directed at Pianissimo but got interrupted as a window appeared in front of her face. "Eh? What's this? A GMO?"

[Persephone.GMO]

Her armor disappeared in a flash as a long robe covered her body. A protective white leather cover came over a part of her upper body as it got tied together by two leather straps in a cross pattern. She saw her shields slamming together to form a book in front of her eyes while she received silver boots and gauntlets in the correct places. The book started to spin in the air and Divinity suddenly saw a name on the back of the book. "Persephone...?" she muttered and took the book out of the air after it stopped spinning. Going through the pages quietly, ignoring Pianissimo's existence for a bit, she noticed every single page was empty. "What a lame book," she said as she closed it again and looked at Pianissimo.

"It's still me. This is new for me too, but this is a similar outfit of Persephone from Soryu Gosthe... You may know them," she said quietly. Holding the book in her left hand, she held her right hand out to Pianissimo. "The name is Divinity.EXE, nice to meet you. Can I call you Piano? It's so much shorter and sounds amusing."
"Call me that if you must...you won't be the first one," said Pianissimo calmly, taking her hand. As I thought...well before the GMO change, at least. Probably a recovery type too. This battle would work out best in our favor if I did most of the attacking while she provided support. Then again... Pianissimo continued trying to think up the best possible battle plan, while their operators talked in hushed voices about...something.
"Good. Both participants are here and seem well prepared for the event. We can now begin." As the white-robed navi finished speaking, he raised one hand and snapped his fingers. The scenery suddenly shifted from a dull, blank, featureless, and gloomy setting to something quite unexpected...

Within seconds of the seemingly trivial gesture, the temperature had dropped to below freezing, and a crisp zephyr blew through the area... Before they realized it, the small group of Navis suddenly found themselves standing upon enormous crystalline icebergs floating across a vast sea of deep blue water. From the starlit night sky, an aurora cast a dazzling array of colors down upon the snowy landscape and water's surface, giving the scene a serenely muted glow.

The scene seemed incredibly real...

Once the two Navis and their operators had had some time to take in the scenery, the Admin Navi spoke once more... "Amazing isn't it? This..." He made a sweeping jesture to indicate the entire scene... "...is the reason you're here. In this environment, you will battle under these conditions. Please review them at your leisure."

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Sea
-Causes Fire Navis to lose HP when standing on them
-Allows Aqua Navis to Submerge
-Deals Aqua Damage when used w/ Panel Shot.
-Changes to Ice when an Ice type Aqua attack is used on it.
-Add 100% Base Elec Damage

Ice
-Causes Non-Aqua Elementals to slide semi-uncontrollably.
-Increased chance Aqua attacks Freeze target, reverts to Normal when triggered
-Deals Aqua Damage when used w/ Panel Shot.
-Adds 100% Base Elec Damage
-Changes to Sea Panel when hit with Fire.

Note: As per Test regulations, a Navi will be selected and given an element for the duration of the battle. This cannot be overwritten by ANY means.


After allowing the Net-Ops and Navis a moment to read the test data, he continued speaking... "And now, I must ask you to fight for your lives." At the end of his statement, he turned and walked out and across the water towards another nearby iceberg...

Behind him, the once calm waters erupted in a spray of water as a quartet of Shrimpy Virii burst from the sea. After they passed a short diastance up the hill towards the pair of Navis. an ElecOgre rose from the snowy ground nehind them, shedding it's powedery camouflage as it floated upwards and tilted upright.

Meanwhile, from the other side, a great polar bear marched it's way forward, it's size easily dwarfing any 3 of the other virii combined... Hulking, and menacing, it readied itself to hurl great blocks of ice at the now surrounded Navis while a pair of strange spoked spheres flew out from behind an icy hillside... Electricity freely arced across the flying virii's bodies as they darted and dodged all over the place, providing very difficult targets indeed...

Status

Enemies
Shrimpy A: 100
Shrimpy B: 100
Shrimpy C: 100
Shrimpy D: 100
Shakey A: 100
Shakey B: 100
ElecOgre: 120
ColdBear: 200


Allies
Divinity: 145 (Fire Element)
Pianissimo: 140


Field:
Ice
Sea

((Begin!))
"Well, so much for a perfect setting," remarked Pianissimo, making a note that he would have to ask for an attack program to remedy that in the future, then turned to look at Divinity, drawing his sword. "Listen, if you have anything to say, say it now. You won't be able to in a few seconds." Suddenly, he swung his sword, eliciting a loud crack, then nothing. He tried to say the words "whoops, too late," but nothing happened. Perfect. This was at least one aspect of the environment he had control over. He turned to survey his enemies. He already knew how each of them worked from scanning them. Five aqua, three elec, he counted, bringing up his custom chip selection menu. Only one elec chip. No matter, the powerbolts would be just as effective against the shrimpies.

Rigel sent the chips, glad to have something else to concentrate on. There were unexpected complications, yes. The sea stage, however, wouldn't be a problem for him. These strange systems hadn't altered his element. Pianissimo fired off the thunder chip and waited for it to reach the shrimpies, before sliding off the ice and into the water. Distance was much easier to judge from up close, which was very important when aiming chips like powerbolts. He charged up the energy-based chips one in each hand, picked out two of the three untargeted shrimpies, and slammed his hands into the bottom of the newly created pool. Two columns of energy shot up from where the shrimpies were. Perfect...they'll never know what hit them.
______________________________________________________

Enjoy the Silence - +30 to chips, 10 damage to self
Thunder ShrimpyA - (40+30) x2 (sea panel) x2 (elec attack on aqua virus)=280...(or 40x2x2+30=190...they both kill the thing)
Powerbolt ShrimpyB - 70+30=100
Powerbolt ShrimpyC - 70+30=100
"OK, here is what we should do..." Divinity started as she spoke to Pianissimo while watching the enemies, "I'll attack those with electricity. I've got chips that'll delete them for sure. If you--"

And suddenly her voice stopped as her mouth continued to move without emitting sound. Raising her finger and closing her eyes, as if she was very intelligent, she continued to move her mouth without realizing she wasn't creating any sound. Hearing the words in her mind, she thought that everyone could hear her, but as she tried to say "What do you think, Area?" she got a weird look back from Area. "I can't hear you, Divinity!" Area shouted into the microphone of her PET. Divinity's mouth moved again which was followed by a smack against the forehead from the palm of her right hand. Finally realizing the sound had disappeared because of Pianissimo's ability, she turned back to the enemies and blinked a few times with her eyes while waiting for anything to happen from Area's side of the battle. Opening her mouth as if she was screaming something, she shook her head from side to side and tried to get Area's attention and send some battle chips.

Her mouth closed and formed a small O as she looked at her book that had started to shine with a light green. Raising the book over her head with a happy smile on her face, she transmitted the data of the boomerang chips into the book and moved it to the back in her right hand. She threw the book in a circling motion at the electric monstrosities and waited for the book to return for another strike. Looking from side to side carefully, she grinned a bit and held her hands out and pretended to pull on a rope to get the boomerang book into her hands. Seeing the book return towards her, she gave the rope one final pull and caught the book in her left hand so it was against the palm of her hand. Spinning around, she immediately tossed the book away again at the same enemies while sending some energy from her body to her boots.

First she came off the ground, floating slightly, and then shot off into the air while looking at the Aqua and Ice panels below her. She did not why, but something in her programming that those were bad things for her. Holding out her right hand in front of her face, the back of her hand held towards the enemies, she made the cross on the gauntlet glow. The book, like a loyal dog, changed his course of flight from Divinity's previous position to her current position in the air. Catching the book in her right hand, she raised her hands into the air and opened her mouth again as if she was shouting something again.

1. Boomerang [60, Wood] @ ShakeyA, ShakeyB, ElecOgre
2. Boomerang [60, Wood] @ ShakeyA, ShakeyB, ElecOgre
3. Flying Dodge
As the zone of silence took effect, the battle took on the feel of a good old fashioned furball. The Shrimpy's started to move as the ElecOgre charged it's horns with electricity behind them. It was just about to fire a bolt of lighting at Pianissimo when Divinity nailed it squarely between the eyes with her enchanted book, erasing it's ugly visage from the battle, but she failed to hit either of the rapidly moving Shakeys. This gave Pianissimo time to zap a Shrimpy that had taken a shot at the two and missed with a return Thunderball, frying it instantly.

Divinity caught the book as it returned, aimed, and threw the book once more, strinking the first Shakey and deleteing it as it swooped in. At the same time, Pianissimo slid between the Shrimpys, through the dissipating cloud of the deleted Shrimpy's data, passed them, and into the water. From his new position he took aim and blasted two more Shrimpys into oblivion, neither of whom had time to react.

Meanwhile Divinity's book had arced around and was bearing down on the final shakey... when a huge block of solid ice went flying by at high speed and knocked the book off course and to the ground, allowing the Shakey to escape deletion. The large block of ice crested the hill, flew into the air a few feet, then fell upon Pianissimo with a loud crash, followed by a huge splash....

The Admin Navi winced at the event, but soon had to deal with an unexpected issue...

Divinity took to the sky, just in time to avoid being shot in the back by the only remaining Shrimpy. Once airborne, she looked down to see that Pianissimo stood frozen solid, encased in a large block of ice, with the remaining Shakey orbiting him like a satellite.

From his vantage point, the test administrator raised his hand to point at Divinity, and executed a command...

Meanwhile, high in the sky Divinity suddenly began to lose altitude for no apparent reason. Try as she might, she could not maintain her flight, and was forced to land on the largest of the icebergs once again.

As Divinity came to rest safely upon the ground, time within the arena came to a halt. The Admin Navi then lowered his arm and spoke across the distance in a mild tone, "I know this wasn't covered in the rules, but I'm afraid you cannot fly at this time. It is rather difficult to test the terrain itself if you simply fly above it. Additionally, you posses neither the abilities nor the appropriate programs to manage safe and sustained flight here as our O.S.'s execution protocols are not the ones you're used to in the world net. You're lucky you didn't crash into the sea." He paused and shook his head. "Please understand. Should you have any questions, however, please ask."

As he finished speaking, the scene sprang to life once again, as if nothing had occured.

Status

Enemies
Shrimpy A: Fried
Shrimpy B: Deleted
Shrimpy C: Deleted
Shrimpy D: 100
Shakey A: Shot Down
Shakey B: 100 (Orbiting Pianissimo)
ElecOgre: Deleted
ColdBear: 200

Allies
Divinity: 145 [Grounded / Fire Element]
Pianissimo: 70 (Frozen Solid, -2 actions to thaw)


Field:
Ice
Sea
((Shuryou and I've essentially planned this turn out beforehand. Go X-strike.))

"Frozen...can't...move..." said Pianissimo as he tried to talk in his frozen state. "Must...resort...to...broken...sentences..." This was going to be a bad day if he couldn't get free soon. Perhaps she had some decent chips, but it probably wouldn't be enough. He...needed...to...thaw...out...NOW!! "Hold that thought, I'll see if Area can get Divinity to thaw you out." offered Rigel. "No...that's...quite alright. I've almost got it." Sure enough, seconds later he had shattered the icy prison. "Now then...huh? Why's this thing spinning around me like an idiot."
"When they encounter large objects on the battlefield, they apparently start orbiting around them. I guess you qualified while you were an ice cube."

"Har har," muttered Pianissimo. "Send me the RageClaw. I think I have a plan. Also, go ahead and send the aquasword as well. I probably won't use it, just want to check out a few specifics on it." Rigel was confused for a moment, but soon understood. Area had metioned Cybeasts at one point. Assuming her navi survived as well, she would probably have one as well... Rigel sent both chips, now almost entirely sure of what Pianissimo was planning. Pianissimo immediately examined the AquaSword data. Yeah, that's a widesword-style chip. he said to himself. This should work perfectly. "Okay, c'mere, you," he said to the shakey, activating the RageClaw.

Pianissimo tried to time his attack well enough that he could successfully impale the rapidly spinning shakey. Finally, he lunged, catching it with his now spiked right hand. "Hey," he said in a rather quiet voice for calling out to someone across the way, but it carried well enough. "I've got something for you." He then lobbed the struggling shakey, aiming directly for the last Shrimpy virus. He then waited to see what Divinity would do with them. A flash of flames from her direction answered his question well enough. Dismissing the rageclaw and drawing his own sword, he called out for her to come with him. There was still one target left.

Seeing that Divinity was following, Pianissimo took an angle to the bear to avoid getting in the line of fire of its ice cubes again. He continued running towards the bear until they were right next to it, at which point Pianissimo jumped, vaulting over the bear. Just before landing on the other side a slashing noise was heard, and Pianissimo landed, sword arm extended and sword held out and slightly upward.
___________________________________________________________________

1-2. Thaw
3. Rageclaw shakey into shrimpy - 20 each
4. X-strike with Divinity. Silencer + FireSword. Total damage: 210
"Area!" shouted Divinity as she held her book, annoyed that she was grounded by the Admin Navi, "What is this about rules?" "Hey hey hey, he's got a point there... Unfortunately," said Area as she looked into the direction of where the Navi had gone off to, "We were asked to test the environmental panels and their effects on Navis. Apparently they're thinking of decorating the Nets with these... Would be fun." "And, eh..." started Divinity as she turned to look at Pianissimo, "Send me the back-up information data of that RageClaw chip we once had." The information requested was sent without hesitation, immediately making Divinity formulate a plan while taking Pianissimo's movements in regard. "Send me the Flamesword," said Divinity as she opened the book before her. Within mere seconds she had the burning rapier in front of her eyes, summoned from the book, and grabbed it by its end. The book shut itself after the execution of the chip while Divinity slammed the back of her right hand against the back of the book, causing it to stick to it like a shield. "Battle time," she said as she ran towards the Shrimpy.

With book on the left hand and rapier in her right hand, she charged for her first opponent while hoping the other enemy had connected in a crash course. Her ponytail bursted in flames as it waved through the air, while small flames emitted from her eyes as her temporary fire element came forth from her programming. "HYAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed with fiery passion within her heart as she slashed her sword at the first enemy which was the Shrimpy. Even though she could've hit the thrown enemy, if it connected with the Shrimpy, she slashed out at the Shakey as well in quick succession.

"Shield! Detach!" she shouted as she jumped into the air and threw her book at the ground. Hovering just above the ground, she landed graciously on it to ensure she wouldn't come close to the ground which might melt the ice from her weapon. "Forth!" she shouted again, commanding the book to float forwards with great speed. Divinity looked at Pianissimo who also charged for the target and grinned as she held the burning sword diagonally before her chest. "Now!" she shouted as she made the book move so she'd be tilted towards the ground before her. Setting off against the book with all her power, she flew out towards the bear and ended at the other side with a flaming line behind her. Ending crouched, she stood up quickly again and guided her book to herself again as she grabbed it from the air with her empty hand. Grinning at Pianissimo for a split second, she shouted at him. "Mission complete! YES!"

1. Firesword [80+10 Fire, Wide Range, Multiple Strikes] @ ShrimpyD
2. Firesword [80+10 Fire, Wide Range, Multiple Strikes] @ ShakeyB
3. Firesword [80+10 Fire, Wide Range, Multiple Strikes] @ ColdBear
As Pianissimo broke free of the ice, Divinity burst into flame, and charged at the sole remaining shrimp, fiery sword in hand. As she moved, the ice began to melt behind her wherever her feet hit the ground, unable to withstand the intense heat. She reached her target and delivered a blazing slash to the virus, critically wounding it.

Meanwhile, Pianissimo reached out and grabbed the Shakey virus, fully intending to throw it at the Shrimpy Divinity was slicing up. He, however, immediately regretted his action, as electricity discharged violently into his body on it's way into the highly conductive seawater at his feet. He lost control of his motor nerves, but managed to not only throw the shakey at the Shrimpy, but launched it like a missile, as his arm spasmed with incredible force. The moment the shakey was no-longer in contact with the rageclaw on his hand, the high-voltage nighmare ceased and Pianissimo went to one knee, steam rising from of his abused body and the water around his feet...

The Shrimpy, turing to take a shot at Divinity, had no time to react to the electric wrecking ball flying its way. The shakey impacted, and discharged megavolts of electricity into the Shrimpy, frying the Aqua virus where it stood, and stunning the Shakey for a moment. Divinity used the opening to slash the Shakey with a return stroke, and paid the price just as Pianissimo had. As her attack connected, the Shakey's electric energy actually back-flowed up the bladeof her fire sword, coursed through her body, and down into the melting ice ad water below her feet. The pain was intense. but short-lived, as the Shakey dissipated into oblivion and Divinity was propelled backwards through the air.

An Iceblock flew through the space Divinity had occupied a heartbeat before. barely missing her as she landed a few feet away from where she had experienced the zapping of her life. The Shakey's involuntary act of revenge had spared her from certain deletion. A mixed blessing, indeed.

As the two Navis recovered from their ordeal, they raised their blades, and charged the Coldbear from widely divergind directions. The Coldbear began to move away, attempting to put some distance between itself and it's enemies, hoping to generate another Iceblock before they reached it... However, the hulking virus wasn't nearly fast enough, and the two battered Navis took their rage upon it in an impromtu tag-team cross-cut. Divinity slashed the virus with her blazing sword, inflicting enough damage that Pianissimo's follow-up strike sliced cleanly through the virus... The upper half slid sideways a few inches before the entire virus dissipated in a cloud of fragmented data.


Status

Enemies
Shrimpy A: Fried
Shrimpy B: Deleted
Shrimpy C: Deleted
Shrimpy D: Electrocuted
Shakey A: Shot Down
Shakey B: Deleted
ElecOgre: Deleted
ColdBear: Sliced n Diced

Allies
Divinity: 95 [Grounded / Fire Element]
Pianissimo: 20

Field:
Ice
Sea

((First Award Earned.))
((Do we heal at the start of each battle, or do I have to use my subchips?))

"Well, that was fun...ow..." said Pianissimo, still cringing from the shock he had received from the shakey. How that thing had managed to cause so much damage...
"You..." he said to Divinity, getting back to his feet. "Are you still okay?"
"Ugh... Could've been better..." started Divinity softly as she dismissed the energy of her burning rapier. Still in her GMO, she walked over the ice carefully to come a bit closer to Pianissimo so she wouldn't have to shout. "But you know what they say..." she continued as she looked at him, "No pain, no gain." A silly grin came on her face after saying this and Area nodded. "I wonder what's next..." Area muttered while tilting her head to a side, causing Divinity to mimic this movement. "Maybe some hot-boilin' magma. This water place is bothering my fire element," Divinity said as she tilted her head so she could see a glimpse of the flaming ponytail, "Man, that was freaky. And did you see the burning eyes?" "Yeah yeah," replied Area as she glared away from the screen. Area then turned her head towards Duke and started to speak to him, "Is Pianissimo going to be okay in the next battle? I'll make sure Divinity heals him with at least a bit of health data. These viruses are new for me, like that bear-like virus. I'd hate to get a projectile of him against myself... Then again, I could break the ice..." She made a thrust into the air with her right hand after letting go off the PET and putting it in her left hand. "Next battle will go better. We just have to realize what our Navis are going to do before they actually do it..." she continued and put her right hand on her PET again.
"Glad you made it through that one." The Admin Navi smiled at the two participants as he started to speak once more... "Time for a welcome change of scenery, I believe. One you might enjoy." As he finished speaking, he knelt down, and touched the surface of the water...

The planar shift came swiftly.

The entire field changed to Grass! Then trees suddenly sprouted from the ground, and the sky became a realistic image of real, honest to god, open sky with the occasional cloud. The sun felt... warm? There were sculpted sand dunes at regular intervals, reminiscent of sand traps at a golf course. The wind blew pleasantly...

A far cry from the icy scene they had just left behind.

The Navi walked towards the pair and held out a pair of datafiles for Divinity and Pianissimo... He spoke as each took one: "This is the field condition data for this battle. Please reveiw it at your leisure."

Quote ()


Sand
-Increases Wind attack damage, reverts to Normal when triggered.
-Slows all characters down.
-Causes Blindness when used w/ Panel Shot.
-Fire attacks change Sand Panels into Glass Panels.

Grass
-Heals Wood Elementals
-Deals Wood Damage when used w/ Panel Shot.
-Adds 1x DMG Multiplier to Fire Damage, reverts to Normal when triggered

Snare
-Triggers steel-jaw trap, holding victim in place for a moment while dealing damage. Releases victim and resets after a short time.
-Aqua attacks cause these to rust away.
-Panel Shot treats this as a Normal Panel.


The Admin Navi spoke one final time before moving off to the side... "If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them. I can place the battles on hold to answer them, as you've already experienced firsthand." Once he was off to the side, he wished the duo "Good luck." perhaps 10 seconds before the battle commenced...


A large pack of Spikey's growled as they stalked onto the field, flames issuing from their mouths... A pair of BoomerEX's floaded upwards out of a patch of tall grass behind them, razor sharp cresscents practically glowing in the sunlight. Behind them, what appeared to be an enormous Shrubby, wearing an iron mask, moved quietly forward, while it stared through the mask with pure malice....


Status

Enemies
Spikey A: 90
Spikey B: 90
Spikey C: 90
Spikey D: 90
Spikey E: 90
Spikey F: 90
Spikey G: 90
Spikey H: 90
BoomerEX A: 100
BoomerEX B: 100
PuffPall: 160


Allies
Divinity: 95 [Grounded / Fire Element]
Pianissimo: 20


Field:
Grass
Sand
Sea

((Planeswalker, Battle 2, Begin!))
"So fast!? Enemies again!?" Divinity shouted and turned her head to look at Pianissimo, "But Pianissimo isn't ready to fight in this condition! To check the power of the surroundings, you'd have to be at full power at the start of each battle otherwise the results are faulty!" Divinity stared at the Navi that was in charge of the tests they had to go through and heard Area sigh from the outer world. "He might not listen to us," she started and took two chips in her hand, "And we can't risk anything. Heal him with the first one, attack with the second. Don't worry, I recharged it." Divinity sighed as well and held her book out before her while opening it as the pages softly touched the hand she kept above it. "Let's start, shall we...?"

"Pianissimo!" Divinity shouted as a bright light came from her book, as a rapier slowly came out of the pages. Hoping he'd turn towards her, she grabbed the rapier and encased in with a pale blue light while the rapier's data got broken down into smaller pieces. Getting closer to Pianissimo, she stabbed the rapier into him with the recovery data surrounding it. The rapier slowly slipped into Pianissimo's body while Divinity just stared at him with an absentminded look. "It's OK. It doesn't hurt..." she said quietly with her eyes closed and humming softly. "Actually..." she continued, "It heals. The image files of the process do need some working on, I admit..." As the rapier had completely buried itself in Pianissimo's system, she nodded and brought her book to herself. Still opened, the pages already brought forth another rapier but with a fiery aura this time.

"Yup, it's charged," said Divinity as she took the rapier in her right hand and attached the shield to the wrist of her left arm, "Time to attack. Let's go! Pianissimo!" This time she knew there were little problems with the surroundings and her hidden fire element bursted out as she swung the rapier at her first target which was the peculiarly formed shrub. Flashing her eyesight to another group of viruses, she quickly sidestepped to get to them in a straight line. "You're going nowhere with those things!" she shouted as her ponytail became pure flames and the golden lines on her outfit became dark red. Running at the two boomerang-typer viruses, she lashed out at them with the rapier with the hope of catching both of them in the destructive flames of her rapier. Area had already taken out two chips for the next attack, but glanced at Duke and waited for Pianissimo to execute his attack.

1. Recovery; Sword [40+10 (Power of Courage) HP] @ Pianissimo
2. FireSword [80+10 Fire, Spread Attack] @ PuffPall
3. FireSword [80+10 Fire, Spread Attack] @ BoomerEX Group
That was fast...too fast. I didn't even have a chance to recover before more enemies appeared. Now what do I do. The sand apparently turns to glass when hit with fire. The only thing I can think of from that is severe pain if you break it. Contrary to popular belief, it's not that slick as long as you have decent grip with your own feet...unless it's wet. So...I have to avoid burning the sand. And if that's unavoidable, I have to avoid getting the resulting glass wet. And if THAT'S unavoidable...I can still guarantee not having to step on it, right? Pianissimo stopped his inner monologue, looking up from the datafile at the surroundings. Is this a battlefield or a golf course? He sighed, wishing he was back in the bland arena with no distracting environment. It was a welcome change of scenery in comparison, but... Oh well, they DO have to test this stuff out somehow. Besides, what's an assassin if he can't defeat an opponent in any environment?

Suddenly, he jerked back to the battlefield as Divinity called out to him. "What is-" he started, before Divinity stabbed him with a rapier. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked, alarmed, before Divinity explained herself. "Yes...yes it does need work," Pianissimo muttered in response, eyes narrowed in a 'this is so stupid' expression. At least he was healed a bit, though. Now for chips to start the battle...
"Pianissimo, I'm sending the Aquasword you got after battling Squalo. That should help put a serious dent in the Spikey horde. I already have a plan for afterwards, but let's stick with the immediate problem for now."
"I quite agree," answered Pianissimo. "Erm...how do you activate this thing?"
"I never really thought about it. Swing always ran his fingers along the blade for his fireblade chip."

"I suppose that makes sense," said Pianissimo. He rolled his eyes, but it went unnoticed behind the dark eyepieces of his helmet. Holding up his katana in one hand and the aquasword data in the other, he put his hand on the blade, then immediately withdrew it as a number of bubbles sprang from the place where he had touched. Well...that was unexpected, he said to himself, touching the blade again and running his hand along the entire length of it. It was immediately covered in water, both bubbling and dripping at the same time. A bit more discrete than a flaming sword, I'll give it that much.

Within two seconds of Divinity saying "Time to attack. Let's go! Pianissimo!", Pianissimo himself had all but vanished in a burst of speed, reappearing near the horde of Spikeys. There are way too many of these guys he thought. I'll have to do something about that. He slashed at the nearest ones, then moved further in and slashed again, before moving again to the other side with the same speed as before. From there he swung his sword twice more, careful to get plenty of water on the grass in hopes it would prevent the grass from burning too much if the Spikeys fired their usual bursts of flame.
__________________________________

1. Aquasword Spikeys A-C, 80 (x2 aqua, wide)
2. Aquasword Spikeys C-E, 80 (x2 aqua, wide)
Ability: Swordplay (free dodge after two melee attacks)
3. Aquasword Spikeys E-G, 80 (x2 aqua, wide)
4. Aquasword Spikeys F-H, 80 (x2 aqua, wide)
Divinity successfully heals Pianisimmo just before he makes a mad-dash through the pack of spikeys... The first two fall before they are able to react, cut down as he passed by... The third fell to a horizontally arced swing, while it's partner jumped backwards, and a fifth jumped in just in time to be hit by the backswing.

Divinity, meanwhile, charged in with her own elemental sword, aiming to cut a few enemies down to size... She took a swing at the malevolent visage of the PuffBall, but her sword simply rebounded off of the mask with jarring force, causing the sword to flicker a bit. A Boomerang passed through the space she had just occupied a moment before while the Puffball advanced menacingly...

Pianissimo continued his attack, slashing and stabbing as he went, felling spikey after spikey. They attempted to fight back, bet were cut diown as they pounced, or missed him entirely and were stabbed for their efforts. One spikey attempted to retreat, but was accidentally slain by Divinity's firesword.

Divinity didn't even notice the Spikey's demise, as she had other problems to deal with... She ran at the Boomer that had attacked her seconds before... She cut ti in half as she ran past, the two halves separating, then bursting into flame as it was consumed by the sword's heat. She continued her previous swing, striking out at the second boomer, onlky to have her sword shatter as the weakened blade struck the Boomer's dense recurve...

It had blocked her attack at the last moment.

This left her vulnerable, and the Puffball exploited the opening. It had followed her silently as she'd charged the Boomers, easily keeping pace as it zig-zagged along... Her only warning came in the form of a hissing laugh as her sword broke... The mask impacted solidly, sending her flying over the Boomer, her arms flailing... She hit the ground, and tumbled a few meters before coming to rest in a patch of sand. Patches of ripped turf and little votive fires were scattered in her wake.

Status

Enemies
Spikey A: Deleted
Spikey B: Deleted
Spikey C: Deleted
Spikey D: Deleted
Spikey E: Deleted
Spikey F: Deleted
Spikey G: Deleted
Spikey H: Deleted
BoomerEX A: 100 (Open)
BoomerEX B: OWNED!
PuffPall: 160 (Poison Mask Active)


Allies
Divinity: 80 [Grounded / Fire Element] (Sword Broken)
Pianissimo: 70


Field:
Grass
Sand
Sea
"So then...what was your plan for afterward?" Pianissimo whispered to Rigel.
"You noticed the effects of fire attacks on sand, right?" Rigel answered, drawing up the datafile again.
"Yes, I did, what about it? You aren't possibly suggesting..."
"We make glass, if that's what you were about to say."
"You've lost it," Pianissimo muttered, starting to run over to Divinity to check if she was okay. "You've seen the way this battle's gone so far, have you not? Other than my ruthless slaughter, of course." He indicated Divinity, who had fallen in a sandtrap. "Do you really want that to happen after turning it into glass?"
Rigel inserted four chips. "Trust me on this. You're pretty good with strategy...it should come to you."
The fourth, heck, even the third chip was unnecessary to tell Pianissimo what Rigel was planning. Areagrab and Rageclaw. With Divinity's forced fire element, the heatshot isn't even really necessary. And I'm sure the Aquaneedle is just in case it doesn't manage to break at first. I see it now, Duke. You've probably been paying even more attention to the battle than me. Then again, I've been concentrating a bit more on what I had to be doing.

The thing with the creepy mask was shielding itself and could actually move around. But what if someone warped behind it? Pianissimo released the Aquasword data from his katana, and sheathed it. Suddenly, he vanished completely. Behind the PuffBall he reappeared, claws extending from his right hand. He immediately stabbed in from behind, making sure the claws dug in enough to form a decent grip. "Stop struggling, you're only going to make this harder on yourself," he muttered to the virus, picking it up, waiting to make sure Divinity had gotten back up and out of the sandtrap and called out to her before lobbing the PuffBall at the sandtrap.

Pianissimo crouched as he finished throwing the Puffball, then sprang towards the boomer that had escaped a fiery death, drawing his katana midflight. Their weakest point...it must be the joint where it opens to fire its boomerang. That probably holds the whole virus together. Concentrating on that point, Pianissimo landed next to the virus, sword drawn back behind him, and slashed at that joint.
____________________________________________________________________

1. Areagrab behind PuffPall
2. RageClaw PuffPall into...sand pit - 40
3. Dodge
4. Silencer BoomerEXA - 120
"UGH! COUGH!" came from the sandpit as Divinity coughed wildly from the sand getting in her face after getting thrown down into it by the PuffPall virus. "Jesus!" she shouted , but realized what she had just said and looked up, "Sorry. It was an emergency." "DIVINITY!" shouted Area loud into the microphone as she waved around the two chips in her hands. Looking up into the direction of the sound, Divinity saw something unpleasant in the corner of her eye. It was the RageClaw on Pianissimo's arm and the enemy he was about to use it against, but she was slowly capable of connecting one point to the other and realized pain was about to be going on if she would remain in her place. "GET..." shouted Area as Divinity stood up quickly, "...THE..." was shouted again as Divinity summoned her book towards herself and snatched it from the air, "...FUCK..." Divinity jumped sideways towards a patch of green blessings, far enough to save her from the predicament and the battle plan they were about to execute, "AWAY!"

Area swiftly slotted the two chips in as soon as Divinity had left the ground and shouted at her, "SHOW ME YOUR MOVES!" Still in her jump, she made a quick turn in the air to face the spot she had just left and held her book opened towards it. "DON'T STOP ME NOW!" Divinity shouted as a blast of flames came from the book which, after the attack ended, fell down on the ground while Divinity landed with her feet on the ground again. "I'm burnin' through the sky, yeah!" she shouted strangely melodious as both her fists engulfed themselves in flames. A couple of pages ripped themselves out of the book as the Firehit started to energize itself within Divinity's body. The pages formed a circling spiral floating before her and awaited the actual attack. "Two hundred degrees," she shouted as she punched her right fist into the spiral which got launched at the PuffPall enemy while a gigantic flaming fist formed itself between the twirling pages. As her attack was flying through the air towards the target she shouted out at the enemy, "That why they call me lady Fahrenheit!"

1. Jump sideways out of the sandpit, before the PuffPall can connect. Land on Grass panel, away from the Sand panels.
2. Heatshot [40+10 Fire, Spread] @ Sandpit, before the PuffPall can connect with it if Pianissimo's strike worked.
3. Firehit1 [60+10 Fire] @ PuffPall.
While Divinity recovered from her tumble into the sandtrap, Pianissimo teleported behind the virus that had sent Divinity into that tumble. After quickly equipping a rageclaw, he grabbed the poison spewing monstrosity, and hurled it towards the sandtrap Divinity had landed in. Divinity, thinking quickly and reacting just as fast, jumped out of the way and blasted the sand with a Heatshot. The sand turned into a sheet of glass as the flames died out, and just in time for the Puffball, shrieking helplessly, to hit the fragile surface like a wrecking ball.

Pianissimo saw the Virus hit, and the resulting spray of glassine shards, and jumped back on reflex to avoid the crystalline shower. He managed it, barely, and narrowly avoided a Boomerang attack from the other Virus. Divinity wasn't quite as lucky. She ignited her hand, wound up for a punch, and let fly just as the shower of broken glass hit her. She flinched a bit, but still managed to launch her attack... and missed. The Puffball fell through the shattered pane of glass and vanished, leaving nothing for the scorching fire attack to hit...

The Admin Navi, standing off to the side, clapped quitely, muttering something about golf...

Meanwhile, Pianissimo, seeing an opening, charged the last virus. The Clipper, lacking a boomerang's solid recurve to deflect the attack, was helpless to stop him as he slashed at the virus' glowing core. The attack connected, slicing the virus in two, deleting it.

They were victorious.


Status

Enemies
Spikey A: Deleted
Spikey B: Deleted
Spikey C: Deleted
Spikey D: Deleted
Spikey E: Deleted
Spikey F: Deleted
Spikey G: Deleted
Spikey H: Deleted
BoomerEX A: Deleted
BoomerEX B: OWNED!
PuffPall: Golf'd!


Allies
Divinity: 70 [Grounded / Fire Element]
Pianissimo: 70


Field:
Grass
Normal
Sand
Sea
Glass
Broken

((Second Award Earned.))