Sword Hunting

Pianissimo and Edana emerged from the NetSquare portal, the latter still completely disoriented.

"Right, send me that data," Pianissimo said.

"Okay, here goes," Duke said, slotting the flash card into the PET and navigating toward the Yumland location data.
When Pianissimo and Edana entered the network, they arrived to find themselves standing on a large raised platform playing host to the NetSquare Gateway behind them. The area around it was a grassy clearing surrounded by forests with dirt paths serving as replacements for the usual net roads of other networks. Upon arrival, they heard the sounds of battle echoing from the forest. It sounded like the clash of swords one normally hears from a duel in progress. It was hard to hear exactly where it was coming from with all the thick vegetation, but there was no mistaking it for anything else.

The data Duke sent setup a sort of GPS for Pianissimo. It generated a sphere with an arrow pointing towards the destination within Pianissimo's vision, but didn't provide any other helpful details. The pointer was thankfully small, somewhat transparent, and shoved up and out of the way a bit so as to be less of an annoyance. However, now that it was active, it couldn't be turned back off again until they either reached the destination or they (miraculously) provided the proper GNA ID code (that they obviously didn't have).... Or so the tiny text message that appeared on his visor proclaimed before disappearing.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP
Edana.SP: 40 HP

---Locations---
Teleporter Platform: You're standing on it.
Gateway: Behind you.

---Objects---
There are trees everywhere. I'm not gonna keep track of them all.

---Terrain---
Normal: 5% (Teleporter Platform, Cannot be changed.)
Grass: 30%
Dirt: 15% (Various dirt paths)
???: 50% (You have no idea because it's covered in vegetation)
Pianissimo narrowed his eyes at the text, wondering if the GNA pulled that on purpose. It didn't matter since he planned on following the pointer anyway, but the thought was...

"Hey," Edana muttered from behind him as he started walking. Pianissimo didn't notice, and a few seconds later she tried to get his attention again with a "Heeeeeeeeey!"

Pianissimo stopped and did a half turn.

Edana smiled, her eyes widening in recognition. "Oh, it's you! You're...what's your name again?"

"I could've sworn I fixed the memory bug at least."

Pianissimo sighed. "It's Pianissimo. Whatever other revelations you feel like having can wait, okay?"

"Okay!" Edana said cheerfully, walking along behind the assassin. No more than a minute later, however... "Why am I still a dragon?"

If Pianissimo hadn't been trying to ignore her for the moment, he would have facepalmed on the spot. In the real world, Duke actually did. "Just run with it for now, I'll explain what happened later."

"Fiiiiine," Edana pouted, following after Pianissimo as they headed down the dirt path nearest to direction the GPS-ish program pointed.
The two walked into the forest along the dirt path that headed generally towards their destination. As they moved along the path, the sounds of the duel in progress become slowly but steadily clearer. However, after they had moved along far enough that they could no longer see the gateway behind them due to all the vegetation... Actually, was that vegetation there before?

Clearly not, since bamboo thickets usually don't come with a eerily glowing and evilly grinning visage...

Kilbys, however, did.

It didn't help that there were a couple of large spiders descending from the trees either.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP
Edana.SP: 40 HP

---Enemies---
KilbyA: 90 HP [Behind Edana]
KilbyB: 90 HP [Also behind Edana, but diagonally behind and to the right of Kilby A]
SpidyA: 80 HP [On a tree to the left of Pianissimo]
SpidyB: 80 HP [On a tree ahead and to the right of Pianissimo]

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. In fact, you're walled in on two sides.

---Terrain---
Dirt: 40% (Path)
???: 60% (You have no idea because it's covered in vegetation)

Battlefield Dimensions: Length is not an issue. Just know that the path is only 3 panels wide. The trees form a canopy at roughly 4 rockcubes above the ground.

((Battle 1: Begin!))
Edana's face lit up at the sight of the viruses."Whee, kindling!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down before extending a hand toward the bamboo clusters to incinerate them.

Only nothing came, and a series of error messages spread out in front of her eyes showing just about every ability she had had as a navi followed by either CORRUPTED or NOT FOUND."They're...gone..." Edana said in a low whine, taking a step back from the Kilbys.

"I can fix some of them later. Just stay out of trouble for now, okay? Pianissimo, I'm sending chips." Duke said, slotting in several fire chips. "Give one to Edana before she throws a fit."

Pianissimo complied, tossing a datapacket containing Flameline data to the support program. "You think that would happen?"

"No idea. I still haven't managed to analyze all of the personality and memory glitches yet."

Pianissimo shook his head, drawing katana. The symbol of a fist appeared over it for a second before condensing into an aura of fire that surrounded the weapon. He swung the weapon twice, causing a pair of flaming fists to erupt from the blade and fly at the spider-like viruses. After making a mental note that that had to be one of the strangest graphical choices for a FireHit that he had ever seen, he responded to Duke's statement with "Then why the hell did you activate her already?"

Duke shrugged, but lacking a window into the net world at the moment, was unable to convey the gesture to Pianissimo.

Edana, however, demonstrated that despite whatever errors her code might have at the moment she was still very capable of using what she had, as demonstrated by raising a wall of flames from the ground under the Kilbys with a simple hand gesture.
___

Pianissimo:
1. Hand off Flameline1 to Edana
2. Firehit1 SpidyA: 60+fire (x2 wood element)
3. Firehit1 Double-attack SpidyB: 60+fire (x2 wood element)
-splice-

Edana:
1. Flameline1 Kilbys: 70+fire to each (x2 wood element)
Pianissimo's twin fire hit attacks find their marks, as the spiders were still in the process of climbing down their respective trees and made for fairly easy targets. They lit up quite nicely, and proceeded to burn where they were, each dropping a bit of Zenny data to the ground below.

Edana's firewall attack proved to be the perfect fit for the situation. The flames shot up suddenly, and covered the stretch of path from one treeline to the other. This left the two bamboo viruses with no alternative but to fry as there wasn't anywhere they could go to escape.

And this is why you don't fight fire with kindling....

But now, Pianissimo and Edana had a new problem... They'd applied fire in a tinderbox, and that bos was starting to burn around them now as the trees at either edge of the firewall caught fire, and the trees the Spidy were roasting nicely against were similarly, if more spectacularly, in the process of burning to the ground. With all the vines, foliage, and interwoven branches of the canopy above, this could turn into a real problem real quick.

The fires were still only in their beginning stages.... What would they do now?

-----------
Summary
-----------

Victory!!

Warning: The forest is currently starting to burn.

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP
Edana.SP: 40 HP
GET: A Choice*

*Note: You may claim [480z and 18 Bugfrags] now, or you may forgo the Cash-Now option and take further actions before claiming the reward from this battle. The reward must be claimed all at once in this case for RP driven reasons.

---Enemies---
KilbyA: Toasty
KilbyB: Toasty
SpidyA: Toasty
SpidyB: Toasty

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. In fact, you're walled in on two sides.
# of Trees are on fire: 4

---Terrain---
Dirt: 40% (Path)
???: 60% (You have no idea because it's covered in vegetation)
The enemies fell almost instantly, but at the cost of starting a potential wildfire. Edana seemed delighted by this, as evident by her bouncing around and happily calling out "Fire! Fire!" Pianissimo shook his head, more concerned about the fact that a wildfire here would only make finding his target more problematic. "Duke, ideas?" he asked.

Duke fiddled with several folder chips, muttering something about "don't have any wide area aqua chips," before stopping on one and saying "Oh! These should work." He sent three chips: an AreaGrab as well as the AirStorm and the only "wide-area" aqua chip he had: the AquaSword.

Pianissimo shrugged, deciding it would have to do. He quickly scanned the area for which tree seemed farthest out of the way from the others, picking out the one the second spider virus had been climbing on. He dashed toward it, then thrust the Aquasword into the trunk, close enough to the spreading flames that the water surrounding the weapon would at least graze them. He then teleported away, taking up a new position behind the line Edana had carved with the Flameline chip and raising an outstretched arm in the direction of the Aquasword. "You might want to move," he said to Edana.

The Airstorm chip activated, and a powerful whirlwind formed in the space between the impaled tree and his hand. Hopefully, it would carry water from the blade through the air if the wind wasn't enough to put out the flames. Even more hopefully, the wind wouldn't just make the fire worse.
___

-end splice-
*Speed of Darkness: Move to SpidyB's tree
4. Stab Aquasword into tree
5. AreaGrab to behind line from FlameLine attack
6. AirStorm2 in space between Aquasword and self: attempt to use wind and water carried by wind to put out flames
Once Pianissimo had the chips in his possession, he moved swiftly towards the farthest burning tree. He stabbed it with an AquaSword, which did very little to put out the flames, then teleported away. When Pianissimo reappeared, he activated his Airstorm2... This pulled at the Aqua data from the AquaSword, and drew it in (which put the fire out on that tree). At the same time, the tornado picked up much of the dirt from the soil terrain around it, and became fairly muddy when mixed with the water.

Unfortunately, it also grabbed Edana, and pulled her into the mess. She happened to be standing right next to where the whirlwind spawned, and her dracoform's wings, even folded up, had a lot of surface area that made it even easier for the storm to pluck her from the ground. Oops.

After a few seconds, the storm plit into three smaller tornados that went in search of the three remaining burning trees. The moment each of them struck a tree, they splattered it with a ton of mud and water, easily snuffing the fires. The problem appeared to be solved.

Edana, on the other hand, was dumped unceremoniously on the panel where the original whirlwind had been... which was now a Mud panel. She was a dizzy, soaked, mud covered mess, and appeared to be also covered in a small collection of Zenny, Bugfrags, and Chip data. She was otherwise (physically) unharmed.

-----------
Summary
-----------

Fire Extinguised.

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [Standing on Soil]
Edana.SP: 40 HP (Dizzy, soaked, and covered in mud.) [Laying in a Mud Panel]
GET: 500z, WhiteWeb1, 18 Bugfrags.

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. In fact, you're walled in on two sides.

---Terrain---
Soil: 35% (Path)
Mud: 5%
???: 60% (You have no idea because it's covered in vegetation)
Edana threw a fit as the whirlwind picked her up, flailing her arms around and yelling indecipherably before being dropped in a mudhole. Seconds later, she pulled herself out, giving Pianissimo a grumpy expression.

"I said you might want to move," Pianissimo said, shrugging.

"Hmph."

Pianissimo didn't respond, instead collecting the data that had fallen away as Edana pulled herself out of the mud hole then continuing on.
Eventually Pianissimo came to a place where the GPS navigation arrow pointed to a spot somewhere beyond the trees and foliage of the Yumlandian forest. The sounds of combat were quite clear at this point, and it sounded like whoever it was on the other side of the tree line was really going at it. Shouts accompanied by the ludicrously more frequent clash of weapons certainly advertised the skirmish to be fairly serious. There wasn't any direct line of sight from here, however.

The path did continue on ahead, but the forest was also less dense in this area.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [Standing on Soil]
Edana.SP: 40 HP (Still dizzy, soaked, and covered in mud. Actions may fail.)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.

---Terrain---
Soil: 40% (Path)
???: 60% (You have no idea because it's covered in vegetation)
Pianissimo stopped, listening to the sound of the battle. The GPS indicator showed an actual point now, rather than just a direction. His first instinct was to clear the distance with an areagrab or cloak and dagger, solving the forest problem right in one. The sounds from blades clashing immediately told him, however, that that would be a terrible idea. "Hm..." He drew his sword, holding it against one of the nearby trees. "Duke, could you send me some cutting power?"

In response, he got the VariableSword and WideSword chips. That...works, he thought, activating the two and combining them into a single weapon with a muted golden glow. Taking a deep breath, he swung the enhanced weapon through a group of smaller trees on the edge of path between him and the spot where the GPS pointed. He moved to take a step off the path, trying to make out what the ground beneath the underbrush was before putting his foot down.

Behind him, Edana was having trouble keeping up for lack of proper balance. "Heeey, Pianoman, my head's spinning!"

Pianoman?

"No really, look! It's spinning!" Pianissimo didn't look and instead took her word for it, but didn't need sight to hear the dragon-winged SP fall over behind him.

Shaking his head, the assassin made another cut through the trees, hoping the sound of the battle itself would be enough not to alert the combatants to two sets of crashing noises in the forest.

"You are Mister Not Fun, you know that?"

"Shh."
___

1. VariableWideSword trees: 160 wide - cut through trees in direction of GPS arrow
2. VariableWideSword trees: 160 wide - cut through trees in direction of GPS arrow
-splice-
And shush Edana did, as she went cross eyed with dizziness, fell over, and passed out. Apparently being left covered in soaking wet mud was not healthy for the fire elemental. Who knew?

The trees, meanwhile, fell over quite nicely after being cut for the most part. The moment the last of the trees (a stubborn one that took an extra swing) crashed to the ground, Pianissimo was at last able to see the battle he'd only thus far been able to hear. Two Navis occupied what amounted to a large clearing just on the other side of the tree line, and they were going at it fiercely.... or were. They seemed to break away from each other when the crashing sound of the felled tree made it to them.

The Navi on the right was a short female custom Navi. She wore a loose green tunic and matching shorts over a simple black body suit. She also wore what appeared to be brown leather hiking boots and matching fingerless leather gloves. She wore no helmet, and her ear covers were hidden from view by her (at a guess) mid-back length red hair. Her Emblem was not visible. She was obviously keyed up and appeared to be armed with a simple metal-shod long staff that she held in a ready stance with both hands. After breaking away from her opponent, she glanced quickly in Pianissimo's direction, then back again at her opponent. She stole a glance or two more, groaned, and finally added a displeased sounding "Party crasher."

The Navi on the left was a draco-form custom Navi of roughly Pianissimo's height. The draconian Navi's skin... if that was indeed its own skin.... appeared to consist of an exoskeleton of a vaguely metallic, almost mercurial nature. The western-style dragon's exoskeleton consisted of plates and smaller scales that covered the Navi from its finned head to the tips of its armored and clawed hands and feet. This Navi even had a set of dragon wings sprouting from its back, although they were folded up at the moment. A very strong Cybeast signal radiated from the Navi, and electricity occasionally arced across its body. It carried a deadly looking custom pole-arm in its clawed hands. No Emblem was visible. It simply turned its head to look in Pianissimo's direction for a moment, shrugged, and turned back to its smaller opponent.

Smaller, yet apparently capable as she took advantage of the short lull in combat well. A quick look back in her direction revealed she'd suddenly acquired a set of greaves and gauntlets. She was also now emitting a second set of Navigator data... a Cross. The smaller Navi emitted a soft green glow momentarily, and her beat up appearance restored itself to normal as she healed herself.

The draconian seemed a bit miffed by this turn of events, and growled its displeasure in the fighter Navi's general direction. "Yeah, ain't that a scuttle spawn." The smaller Navi taunted before making a 'come and get it' wave of her hand and adding "Now do something about it, thunder breath."

It's on now...

She got exactly what she asked for as the draconian roared at her and spat a cluster of lightning bolts her way. The fighter, apparently used to her opponent by this time, tossed her staff into the air, and ducked the moment the draconian opened its mouth. The bolts zapped the staff while the fighter skidded forward under the arcs. As she rose, she caught her staff, spun and deflected a falling axe blow from the draconian's pole-arm. The two then proceeded to fall into a dance like duel of blow, deflection, counterblow, last-second-evasive-twists, follow ups, feints-- Refs be damned, it was no-holds-barred here, as they were punching, kicking, and/or clawing at each other too.

The draconian was surprisingly agile for its size, and was managing to keep pace with what one would normally have assumed to be a more agile opponent. He even jumped over a fluidly executed sweeper by the other Navi, and swept his bladed weapon down at the same time to catch her. The fighter blocked with her staff by planting one end into the ground, and putting her weight on it by pulling herself up. She used the motion to sock the draconian in the snout with a rising punch just as it landed, and found herself having to jump back before a raking claw attack passed through the space she'd just occupied.

The fighter grimaced as she realized all she'd managed to do with that gutsy maneuver was piss off her foe as the draconian redouble his efforts to maul her. The two deadlocked in a flurry of clashing weapon couterblows after that, leaving Pianissimo to stand forgotten on the sidelines as the two resumed putting everything they had into trying to kill each other.

The GPS in Pianissimo's visor was pointing at the two dueling Navis in an odd manner. It seemed to be trying to follow the motion of one or the other of their weapons as the mission objective. As a result, it was spinning and flickering like crazy, and generally made it impossible to tell which was which. After a few seconds of this, the protocol gave up trying, and displayed a (?) in place of the arrow and sphere it had shown before. Pianissimo and Duke would have to decide what to do about this themselves.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies--- (AKA: the summarily ignored)
Pianissimo: 200 HP [Standing on Soil]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious--

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Dragon Navi(?): 699 HP [Equip: Custom Pole Arm]
-- Beast Out: Type Unknown

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 700 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%
Great, there goes my cover, Pianissimo thought. Knew I should've silenced the area first. He looked back at Edana, silently grateful that she had finally shushed like he said...and found her on the ground and unconscious. Well, at least that takes care of one problem. Returning his attention to the two combatants just beyond the trees, he observed each of them in turn. One, a dragon-themed navi wielding a polearm and emitting a signal he had only registered twice before.

A Cybeast? Hm... He glanced back at the unconscious Edana, then back at the draconian. Despite its appearance it didn't seem to be the same kind, but....

The other navi, meanwhile, was smaller, dressed for light combat, and carried a metal staff weapon. Both navis only barely acknowledged him before the latter activated a cross and jumped back into the battle. The assassin's eyes flicked back up to the tracker device in the corner of his eyepiece display, but both navis and their weapons were already moving too fast for the device to track. Eventually it simply switched to displaying a question mark in place of the tracking arrow.

Smartass program, Pianissimo thought, lowering himself to the ground as he watched the two navis fight. Other than the half second each took acknowledging his presence, the two navis seemed perfectly content to completely ignore him in favor of beating up on each other. Fortunately, Pianissimo preferred it this way. It allowed him to focus on the fight without having to worry about being skewered at any given moment.

"Hey," he whispered over a private line to Duke as an idea occurred to him. "See if that tracking data has a playback feature. If you can get it to work, try and get it to play back the moment where they stopped fighting. If not, use my helmet's data. This thing's useless as long as those two are going at it."

"On it," Duke responded, examining the data on the flash card he had received from Heather. "Let's see...playback...playback..."

Pianissimo, meanwhile, tried to focus in on the weapons themselves, looking for any indication that either one wasn't an ordinary weapon. The sword he had briefly owned and was trying to recover had performed such unusual actions as appearing as a larger-than-normal Firesword chip, blown an enemy navi clear across the room, and shielded him twice from incoming attacks. If either of these weapons were anything like that, they would show similar actions, or at least something to indicate they were more than a staff and polearm.
___

-end splice-
3-6: Try to determine through various methods which navi's weapon is the mission objective
There was indeed a playback feature, and it was conveniently tied to Pianissimo's various activity logs. Viewing them revealed the tracking system had pointed to the Draconian first, then flickered over to point at the fighter Navi. The arrow kept alternating between the two very unhelpfully until Duke eventually realized it was doing something else at the same time. There was something blinking...

A second playback of the recording in slow motion revealed what exactly the impression of blinking was... where it came from. As it started, the arrow pointed at the Draconian Navi, and highlighted the Draconian's armored body with a pixel-thin orange outline, but not the weapon it carried. When the arrow blinked out, and blinked back in again to point at the fighter, no outline was shown anywhere. It just pointed at her. It flickered back to the Draconian, and outlined the Navi's 3-d sprite with an orange border again before shifting back to the fighter Navi. This time, the fighter Navi had moved into her combination attack, and her body was turned around.... There was a sword sheathed at her waist, and it was outlined with an orange border. The Navi herself was not outlined at all.

----

Pianissimo, meanwhile, was a spectator for one hell of a fight. Good as he was, trying to follow the movements of a staff specialist and a polearm specialist when he himself was a swordsman was not even remotely easy. The best he could tell was that the staff seemed to be what it was at face value. No complex signals, or special features seemed evident.

The Draconian's polearm, on the other hand, looked positively lethal next to the sinple metal-shod staff the fighter was wielding. But at the same time, the weapon looked like it could be unnecessarily difficult to use properly. For one, the thing was longer than the fighter was tall by almost half again her height, and it appeared almost 90% of the weight had to be concentrated in the murderous pair of broad blades that flanked the shaft on the business end of the weapon. It looked like a glorified double bladed great axe head had been crossed with a pair of spear tips with sharp hooks on the bottom side of each blade... and that mess had been mounted on the long end of a metal spear shaft wrapped in leather and tape. If that wasn't enough, there was a double-edged short sword blade on the reverse end, making it really easy to slice or stab yourself trying to use the weapon. Not a toy for beginners by any stretch, and it probably weighed as much as the Draconian's opponent. In spite of all that, there were no complex or strange signals coming from the weapon.

Yet, the Fighter seemed to be able to ward off blows from the Draconian's mighty weapon with her metal-plated stick. Well, most of them. The Dragon Navi managed to land a solid hit on his elusive opponent at last, which picked the smaller Navi up and tossed her through the air a few feet before she landed and scrambled to a stop. She quickly ducked, and wasn't disappointed to have a thunderbolt lance through the air over her head. It passed close enough to her to make her hair frizz out, but didn't connect. She braced and leaped into the air (remarkably high for such a simple looking jump), and managed to avoid a second bolt that singed the ground where she'd been crouching a second prior. The Dragon Navi was forced to raise its polearm over its head and brace it with both hands to parry a falling skull-smashing swing by the falling fighter.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies--- (AKA: the summarily ignored)
Pianissimo: 200 HP [Standing on Soil]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious--

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Dragon Navi(?): 699 HP [Equip: Custom Pole Arm]
-- Beast Out: Type Unknown

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 650 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%
That's...odd, Pianissimo thought, noticing the complete lack of indicative features from either of the two navis' weapons. The tracker program was definitely pointing to something... He opened the private line again. "Duke, do you have anything yet?"

"One moment," Duke answered, trying to make sense out of what the playback had shown him. First, he had managed to figure out that it was, in fact, trying to point to two objects. Second, the blinking had told him that neither of the two objects were the weapons in their hands. The draconian's body itself was highlighted by the program, which made Duke wonder if was also used to find navis with BeastOUT programs. After relaying this to Pianissimo, he went back to look for the second, not seeing any highlight on or near the fighter navi...and then there it was, a sheathed sword strapped to her waist. "She's not using it, it's at her waist," he said.

Hm... Pianissimo thought, glancing back at the fighter navi. She wasn't standing still long enough for him to be able to see anything at her waist clearly. Well, this is going nowhere as long as they're still fighting. He sighed, drawing his own katana. The two were more than likely too absorbed in the battle to stand down just because he said so, which meant that he would have to join in himself and make one of them yield...or simply delete them. One, of course, because he could tell just from appearances that trying to take on both navis at once would be suicide. On that note, the fighter navi seemed more likely to actually talk when the battle was done.

...That and, as the other braced against a strike from the fighter with its polearm, she had presented him with an opening.

Not wanting to waste it, Pianissimo faded into the shadows of the forest around him and disappeared, then rematerialized directly behind the dragon navi. He immediately struck, slashing at the navi in hopes of damaging it before either navi could react to his presence.

After striking he pulled himself away in a short backwards dash and knelt to the ground. He placed one hand on it, feeling unfamiliar chip data uploaded to him. Forcing the chip data into the ground, he summoned a thick vine next to the dragon navi, which immediately tried to wrap around it and hold it in place.
___

1. Cloak and Dagger - Teleport behind Dragon Navi, 70+slashing
*Speed of Darkness: Move back
2. Rope1 - 50 wood+hold for three turns to Dragon Navi (+50 if on soil)
-Splice-
The Draconian, its hands already full fighting the Navi that stood before it, was an easy target for Pianisimo's attack. The initial sword strike connected easily with the broad metallic wings folded upon the Dragon Navi's back and-- did absolutely no damage as the blade of Pianissimo's sword bounced off with the ringing of metal striking metal. The wings were apparently very heavily shielded... a feature not evident from a distance, but fairly obvious at this range.

This plink to the Draconian's ridiculous defenses did nothing to get the Navi's attentions either. It did not falter in its duel with the Fighter before it. If the Fighter saw him, she gave no sign. Given these conditions, the follow up Rope1 attack connected with absurd ease, and dealt a ton of damage in the process. The Draconian found itself bound in place, and a much easier target for its opponent.

The Fighter Navi didn't look a gift horse in the mouth, and capitalized on the sudden immobility of her opponent to pound on the Dragon Navi with a flurry of staff blows. It spat lighting at her in retaliation, but the Fighter simply gritted her teeth, took the bolt, and continued to wail on her adversary. The Dragon Navi eventually dropped its lance, and crossed its arms over its face.... and the Fighter stopped attacking it. "Do you yield?"

The draconian turned its head to one side and nodded without lowering its arms. It collapsed into a pile of metal parts shortly after. It was still alive, apparently, as the readings still proclaimed the pile to be a Navi, still in BeastOut, and with 1 HP remaining. How very strange.

"Good." The Fighter said as she lowered her weapon with a tired sigh. "You're one tough bastard." Now that she wasn't constantly in motion, she appeared to be covered in an impressive array of cuts and nicks, accompanied by a nice burn mark where the thunderbolt had hit her. She was breathing heavily. "I was expecting a fight, but not with two of you back to back...." She looked over at Pianissimo, and arched an eyebrow. "....Now, do I get to thank you....? Or are you here for round three?"

Thanks to the fight ending, Pianissimo was also able to finally get a solid reading off the sword sheathed at the Fighter's waist. It gave off a completely separate reading from the Fighter Navi. A very complex one, just as the Ancient Sword had.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Dragon Navi(?): 1 HP (Collapsed into a pile?)
-- Beast Out: Type Unknown

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 350 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown
Sword(?): 1 HP (worn by Fighter Navi)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.
Custom pole-arm [on the ground]

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%
Well...I wasn't quite expecting that, Pianissimo thought, surprised but not entirely unsatisfied by the conclusion of the fight. It certainly saved him the trouble of going through a longer, more drawn out fight when neither of the target programs present seemed to be what he was looking for. The dragon navi's collapse, however, didn't so much surprise him as lend more evidence that the navi was a weapon program itself, as Duke's message had suggested.

There was some cause for concern, however, in how the dragon navi appeared not only still alive but in BeastOUT form. The assassin kept his own sword drawn and in a position where he could defend himself easily, just in case. Nonetheless, its collapse had ended the fight, at least for the moment, and allowed the scanning equipment in Pianissimo's helmet to get a reading on the sheathed sword.

>Unknown program:
Subject resembles a basic sword object. Target is a separate program from its wielder. Type unknown. Data signals given off by the subject resemble a previously owned Ancient Sword program.
Status: 1 HP remaining.


Could be she was using it earlier and had to stop before it was deleted, Pianissimo thought, giving himself one interpretation of the weapon's critical condition. The navi's comment about "round three", however, presented a different possibility. Or she could have beaten it into submission and taken it with her, not unlike the dragon navi here.

"That depends," he answered the fighter navi. "I have a few questions about what just happened here. Your answers will determine whether I'm here for, as you say, 'round three' or not."
The fighter slowly nodded once. "Fine with me. I'll answer your questions as thanks for what you did just now. If you wanna go a round after that, I'm game, pal." She did not change out of her fighting stance, and her staff remained raised in a ready position. She was still breathing heavily, so there was no telling if she could or would make good on her promise, but the fight hadn't left her eyes just yet. "Now... Ask away."

Meanwhile....

The BeastOut signals from the.... pile of plates that used to be a Draconian Navi slowly faded. The pile of plates slowly reverted from a draconic form to a pile of ordinary plate mail. The arcs of electricity that had coursed and leaped across the plates died away as well. To anyone who hadn't seen what it had been just a minute ago, that pile would look just like discarded armor, albeit finely crafted. The Navigator signal reduced drastically in strength shortly after, until the pile of armor barely showed any signs of having just previously been a raging thunder dragon Navi. And what signs it did show only made sense to someone who had experience with other.... similar artifacts.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Armor Navi(?): 1 HP (Dormant)

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 350 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown
Sword(?): 1 HP (worn by Fighter Navi)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.
Custom pole-arm [on the ground]

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%
"I'll get straight to the point, then," Pianissimo answered. He left his own sword unsheathed, just in case the draconian navi had some fight left or the other decided to attack him anyway. The former option seemed less and less likely by the second, however, as his scanning equipment stopped picking up the telltale signals of beast data from the draconian navi, now reverting to a simple pile of armor.

"First," he said, "What business was it that you had with our scrap-heaped friend here? Second, I'd like to know more about the blade at your waist there. Namely how you happened to acquire it and why it appears so close to breaking."
The Navi let out a relieved sigh then spoke in a dust-dry tone: "Oh good. And here I thought it would be a tough question. I'll answer them in reverse order. This--" The female fighter shook her hips to one side to make the sword she wore at her waist swing out once for emphasis. "--is what's left of some sword-swinging dolt who thought it was a really cute idea to jump out of the bushes and try to stab me on the way here. Obviously he failed, and I kicked his ext all over the field. He got me good a few times before I managed to take him down, though, the freak. I had no business with him otherwise, and still wish I'd never met the creep. Now...." She nodded her head towards the pile of metal that had once been a lightning-bolt-spitting draconian. "Ol' buddy sparky over there I really do have business with. In fact, our meeting is the whole reason I'm even out here."

The female fighter sighed. "Look, pal.. Let's be honest here... There's no way you could be someone looking for thunder breath over there. Nobody in their right mind goes looking for him, myself included." She grinned, indicating she knew full well what she had just said. "Knowing that, what are you really here for? Huh? I pity you if it's to ask for my three sizes like the other guy. You seem a little brighter than he did, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." And right out there... The fighter was asking straight up what Pianissimo really wanted here, and her tone and manner indicated she expected an answer. She never once dropped her guard during her explanation.

-----------
Summary
-----------

---Allies---
Pianissimo: 200 HP [on Grass @ Clearing]
Edana.SP: --Unconscious-- [on Soil @ Path]

---Possible Mission Targets---
--Side A--
Armor Navi(?): 1 HP (Dormant)

--Side B--
Fighter Navi(?): 350 HP [Equip: Custom Battle Staff]
-- Crossed: Source Unknown
Sword(?): 1 HP (worn by Fighter Navi)

---Objects---
Lots and lots of trees. Shrubberies too, nee.
Custom pole-arm [on the ground]

---Terrain---
--Path--
Soil: 40%
Felled Trees: 10%
Forest: 50%

--Clearing--
Grass: 85%
Soil: 15%