The Terraformer and the Knife Fighter

The NetVegas Internet City gate was wide open as Trent passed through. The fighter and his support unit Sasha stood in the gate taking in the lights and the sounds of NetVegas. All around were lots of bright lights, programs, drunken navi's and all sorts of crazy things. With an area so populated and so big it couldn't be hard to find a few fights. Trent took a few steps forwards, Sasha uncomfortable around all the unusual things he had never encountered. It was loud here, far too loud. Trent wanted to explore the area a bit on his own. Wanted to see some the light and sights for himself; Mark wouldn't allow that though. Training time was here.

Instead he pushed his curiosity back down and turned around to face the gate once more. "Who am I looking for?"

"Her name is Terra.EXE. She has long green hair and from the information I could gather on her, she will stand nearly a foot shorter than you. Most navi's already do that though, nothing new there."

"A woman?" Trent asked, almost disgusted. Trent was, surprisingly, strong into gender roles, even though half of him still remained divided on the subject from his previous encounters. He felt nearly as though he would be playing more of a body guard, instead of building any form of tactics. "Are you that upset at our luck on the last few things?"

Mark shot Trent a glance before turning off his video feed. "Find her," He said before dropping verbal communication as well.

Trent looked to Sasha, who had not dropped his vigil, and waited patiently for Terra to emerge from the gate.
Emerging from the Electopia local transfer gate, Terra and Carbide walked through the entrance, and peered around for their partners. For an early Sunday morning, the NetVegas entrance was understandably not very populated, and they had no problem locating the Internet City gate. There, they found only one pair waiting for them.

A little surprise was waiting for them; she had expected Trent to be a male Navi of some sort, of course, but she thought Sasha was a humanoid. "Doggy!" exclaimed Carbide without reserve. Terra walked up to Trent, examining her partner as she did. She noticed that the Navi was a bit of a scowler, and a good deal taller than her, though she had no problem keeping her calm.

"I assume you're Trent?" asked Terra.
Trent and Sasha stood waiting by the gate, not exactly sure what to expect. As they waited, Sasha kept his guard up and his eyes scanning, but among the others even he had a hard time hearing the pair approaching them. Both were caught off guard by the happy cry behind them, 'Doggy!'. Sasha jumped nearly straight up in the air before landed and shuffling to the other side of Trent, his ears back and teeth showing. Trent made no effort to spot his dog as he turned to face the pair. He knew the girl would be shorter than him, but this was no at all what he thought. The support program was even worse, barely measuring up to the stomach of the tall Navi. Sasha was also large compared to the two, standing almost half was tall as Carbide to his shoulder, his massive head nearly reaching to her shoulders. Overall the pair was tiny.

As Sasha kept his teeth up and his chest low to the ground, Trent started to talk. "I am. You must be Terra." He looked the girl up and down. The only true description of her that he was given was her hair, which stood out the most on her form. She didn't look the part of a fighter at all to him, other than her boots and arm wraps. Her overall form was too delicate looking. After a moment he tore his eyes from her and gave Sasha a hand signal to relax and back down. The dog lowered his lips, hiding his teeth, and stood more upright. His ears slowly returned to a neutral point. "This is Sasha. Who is your companion?"
"Whoa, whoa," said Carbide, pulling back as Sasha did, hiding behind Terra. The dog was bigger than she had assumed. Much, much bigger. Maybe he could bite my head off, thought the support program, though that was most unlikely. Terra paid not much heed to her antics, and replied slowly, "This is Carbide. ... Slightly impulsive, as you can see."

Taking a little time to examine Trent, she found that he had a build of a seasoned fighter, or at least programmed to look that way. Remembering her previous encounter of Durandal, she began comparing them to each other, and wondered what Trent's personality was like. From the clear-cut way Trent conducted himself, it was pretty simple to deduce that the fighter Navi probably wouldn't be carrying a complicated code of conduct like the knight Navi's chivalry.

"Sasha's big," commented Carbide, once she saw that Sasha had calmed down slightly. Terra smirked as she took a glance at Carbide. She hoped that the child-like SP wouldn't be too much trouble to her partner. As she re-thought it, she didn't really have much social experience, either, being what amounted to a newborn Navigator. Before she could let her thoughts wander, though, she went back to the topic at hand.

"... Should we leave now?" she asked.

[Battle 1 - Ready]
Terra.EXE: 170 HP
Carbide.SP: 40 HP
"Terra and Carbide it is then," Trent said. He looked down to his dog, which was taking the victory over the other SP rather well. His head was a bit higher, and his chest out more. Sasha was indeed a very big dog. Sasha dropped more of his harsh exterior once the victory was made. Trent looked back to Terra and inspected her.

He wasn't expecting much in the way of fight, and how she fought was an even greater mystery to him. Nothing on her stood out as a weapon; just those wrapped arms of hers. She must use some form of magic although what kind was a fully unknown to him. She had better hold up her own he thought. "We should leave."

As Trent and Sasha turned to start into the networks, Mark turned his display back on, along with his communication lines. "Hello there Terra," He said in a very clam voice. "I am Mark, the operator of Trent. I hope we can enjoy our bust together and that both of us achieve our goals. If you have anything you need to get done in this network, we will gladly help you get it finished." Mark was being very polite and welcoming to Terra and Carbide. He turned his display back off, and Trent stared at where it once was, seeing through the facade. He started walking again, looking for the initial fight.

{Battle 1 Please}
Trent and Terra's journey was off to an eventful start as they stumbled across something fairly unusual: A giant mansion.

It seemed to be abandoned and the doors were left slightly ajar, as if to invite those brave enough to venture inside. There were no signs anywhere indicating it was private property and it looked worth investigating. The two navis entered the building cautiously, wary of any viruses that may have infested the grounds.

The foyer was as large as expected, with a thick red carpet that rolled down a long hall and up a flight of stairs that split into two paths on the upper level. Four thick tree trunk sized candles resting on top of giant stony pillars kept the room poorly lit. The flickering wicks cast shadows along the walls, decorated with framed images of viruses. They seemed so life-like, one would have no trouble believing they spring forward and attack.

*thump*

The sudden sound caused both navis to stop in their tracks and check their surroundings. None of the paintings had moved and the sound echoed off the old walls making the source hard to pinpoint.

*thump* *thump*

Whatever it was was getting closer.

*thump* *thump*

It was coming from upstairs. Terra and Trent turned their attention to the top of the stairs and watched as some kind of lone flute virus hopped its way to the fork at the top of the staircase. It stopped, stared at the navis and began to play a horrible melody. Terra tried to say something but the sound was effectively muting her. On top of that, the candles flared up from the noise as four Candevils crept out from the shadows at the base of the pillars. Two Pulsebats were also drawn to the scene and circled about overhead.



MuteAnt: 90 HP [top of stairs]
CandevilA: 120 HP [left]
CandevilB: 120 HP


CandevilC: 120 HP [further away left]
CandevilD: 120 HP [further away right]
PulsebatA: 80 HP [flying]
PulsebatB: 80 HP [flying]

PillarA: 200 HP
CandleA: 60 HP [on PillarA]
PillarB: 200 HP
CandleB: 60 HP [on PillarB]
PillarC: 200 HP
CandleC: 60 HP [on PillarC]
PillarD: 200 HP
CandleD: 60 HP [on PillarD]

Terrain: 70% Normal (lobby), 30% Normal (Y staircase)

Terra.EXE: 170 HP [silence]
Carbide.SP: 40 HP [silence]
Trent.EXE: 190 HP [silence]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP [silence]

[Battle 1 - Begin!]

Terra nodded to the operator, who seemed nice enough, and went about on their journey with the rest. Throughout the trip, Carbide hid behind Terra, occasionally stealing a glance at Sasha. Curiosity compelled her to yearn to get closer to the large white dog, while fear did otherwise. Eventually, they left the blaring lights and loud noises, and came to a more secluded area. A large mansion stood tall and proud, directly in their path.

There wasn't really much choice other than to investigate inside, or take a long detour around. The doors creaked open, and the interior was revealed. "Kind of fancy, though it looks pretty creepy too," commented Scarlet, lying down on the bed and propping up her head with her arms. "... Possibly intentional," Carbide gripped Terra's arm tightly as they walked through, with the former's eyes darting here and there, looking at the various fixtures of the creepy house.

Giant candles rested upon pillars, creating an eerie atmosphere as shadows were cast everywhere as a result of the lighting. Framed depictions of viruses hung from the walls, making both of them question the tenants' taste in decor. The paintings were quite life-like, though the value of the art was lost upon them in the thick atmosphere.

Thump.

"Wah!" exclaimed Carbide, gripping her Navi's arm even more tightly, while Terra stopped and listened. Unfortunately, due to the echoing of the walls, she heard it as thought it came from everywhere at once. The poor lighting didn't help matters, and the wave readings through her feet were diminished in sensitivity due to the thick carpeting.

Thump. Thump.

Terra glanced over at Trent and Sasha, wondering how they were reacting to the noise. Carbide whimpered a little, eyes searching around madly for anything that looked like it was making the noise.

Thump. Thump.

Finally, she managed to locate the source of the sound; a flute-like virus had been hopping noisily up some grand-looking stairs. "...?" She looked at it, it almost seemed comical in its design, rather unfitting for the setting. A couple of moments later, however, and she realized that it didn't need to look scary.

Both her and Carbide's auditory systems were suddenly flooded by a deafening cacophony, the sound almost tearing at their heads. The girls both screamed out in pain, putting up their hands to cover their ears immediately. Scarlet was taken by surprise at the sudden blare of music, which somehow took out the PET's sound systems temporarily.

She found it to be a blessing and a curse, as the sound would not be waking up Luke, but she couldn't communicate with Terra or Carbide. Clicking her tongue, she attempted to send some battlechip data in a rush. However, a strange error returned to the screen, saying, "Battlechip System Disrupted. Attempting to Reconnect." "More problems," she clicked, trying to find out the source of the error.

Meanwhile, Terra managed to tone down the thumping in her head long enough for her to survey the battlefield. Four candle viruses had appeared near the pillars, while some bats flew overhead. Looking up at the MuteAnt with disgust, she immediately booted up her battle routines. Gritting her teeth, she raised her right foot, and sent it smacking down onto the carpeted floor.

Suddenly, the fuzzy red carpet began to harden and transform, right up to where the MuteAnt was standing. The shine from the candles reflected off the sheet of metal that the carpet had become, and a faint, soothing yellow glow enveloped her. She looked over at Carbide, who was currently shrieking her head off at the pain, and gestured at her to come closer. The SP complied gladly, sidling up to Terra and stomping on the ground in front of her, causing a pillar of rock to appear in front of her, protecting them both from frontal attacks.

Terra also thought of Trent and Sasha, but she couldn't afford to waste any more time. The target had to be taken out right then. Narrowing her eyes, she focused on the sheet of metal that she had formed, and sent down a pulse of energy through her feet. Following that, the pulse traveled through the sheet, and erupted in a magnetic pulse around the MuteAnt's area. Terra couldn't be sure of it, though, as the terrible Melody played by the dastardly flute was very disconcerting. All she could do now was wait, and try to avoid anything obvious that would come after her.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[1] Terraform: Tough Steel @ Terra + MuteAnt [Large Metal Terrain]
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Terra [20 HP Planar Barrier - Metal: Elec]
[2] Take Aim
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Carbide [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield]
[1] Defend Terra
[*] Geomancer @ Shock Pulse 1 [Metal - Imbue Elec]
[3] Terraforce: Shock Pulse 1 @ MuteAnt [Elec 45 + Blast2 + Ground] [+100% Metal] {A}
[4] Dodge
As the pair walked, Sasha kept his eyes on the pair behind him. He would looked forwards and back as they moved, becoming more and more curious by the little Carbide. She kept inspecting him, despite the large scare he had already given her. Titling his head he stared at her, before dead stopping as Trent did before the large mansion. His eyes searched the building over, the eerie atmosphere the building was giving off being very curious to him. Rather odd area for this network he thought. Then again he had never been here before, so anything was possible.

Pushing his way into the dark room, candle light bathed over him. Fearlessly he and Sasha advanced forwards both scanning the area with an eye of suspicion and curiosity. Sasha hugged close to the legs of Trent, his head low and his ears alert. Nothing would sneak up on him. Not like anything needed to, the loud thud coming from the building wasn't trying to be sneaky. Both the warrior and dog stopped and listened.

It wasn't long before another thump was echoing through the large halls. As the source of the sound became clear, Trent withdrew a single knife, leaving his other palm open. He stood a low stance and waited. A strange looking ant like virus stood at the top of the stairs. Trent was off put by this virus, thinking nothing more than a tiny inconvenience, which it soon proved him wasn't true. Horrible sounds flooded his ears and Sasha's, causing Sasha to cover his ears in pain. Mark was trying to talk to Trent, but nothing could be heard. Tiny bits of Mark's words made it through the shriek, but not enough to determine the battle plan he was trying to lay down.

Mark was attempting to slot in chips to end the noise and lack of communication, but the PET was simply ejecting the chips popping up large error messages. He hit the internet quickly on his PET, trying to find the technical title for this effect, knowing it must be something the ant was doing. As he searched more viruses came to join the ant, and the battle was started.

Trent knew there would be no support from Mark until that ant was gone, this much was made clear by the lack of talking Mark was doing, he normally was throwing ideas left and right for battle plans. Trent snapped his hand to his side and withdrew the other knife. Gathering Sasha's attention he gave him the hand signals to start his collar for the protection it provided. Sasha uncovered his ears and scratched at his neck, dropping the cube to the ground before stepping on it and glowing blue for a second. With another hand signal Trent started to attack the ant, but saw that Terra had already begun assaulting the virus. The carpet up one side of the stairs changed terrain type.

He looked at her briefly as she started on the ant, not fully sure how she fought yet. He would study later, she undoubtedly had a different way of fighting than any other he had seen. With the ant under control, he changed his focus to pulsebats in the air. He wouldn't be able to drop many of the candevils with just his knives sadly, but both of the pulsebats should drop to his blade. Trent and Sasha split, Sasha dodging away in case of an attack, slowly making his way to the base of the steps. Trent moved in on the first on the pulsebats.

Knives at the ready he ran under the pulse bat and reached into the air with his left hand. The large paw swept in at the bat, attempting to rake it from the sky down unto the waiting blade below. Once his hand had returned to his side, he pulled the knife back trying to sink the attack into the wings of the bat, hopefully crippling and stunning it. Wasting no time on the assault, he pulled his left blade across for a quick slash before dropping his weight low and running to the other bat. Keeping his weight light on his feet during the run he was prepared to dodge any return attacks.

Once he closed in on the other bat he jumped into the air with his left hand out stretched and his right pulled back for a ice pick style attack. He swung his massive hand forwards, trying to stake the bat as he fell back to the ground below. With a large thud, close to that of the ones at the start of the fight, he landed. In a swift motion he pulled his left hand back, guiding the attack towards the chest of the bat. He held the blade for a moment before pulling a large boot up to the center of the bat he tried to kick him backwards.

After these moves Trent had jumped and bounded around the whole room, doing flying assaults on the mobile targets. He had plenty of things left he could do, if he actually had access to his chips. Without that support, Trent couldn't do much sadly. He dodged and moved his way back to his starting point and near to Sasha's side. Once there he took a moment to relax his mind and prepare for the next turn. He would unleash many strong attacks once he had his chips back, and prepared himself for when that support was back. Taking one last action, he kept himself light on his feet and watched his partner briefly before worrying more about Sasha.

Summary
Sasha
1) Protection Collar -30 HP Barrier to self-
2) Dodge towards the base of the stairs

Trent
Free Action: Fast Warrior: Tactical Movement under Pulsebat A
Free Action: Get Back here: Passive Pull to Pulsebat A to pull him down towards...
1) Combat Tactic: Spinal Cut to Pulsebat A (80 + Stun + Slashing)
2) Combat Tactic: Quick Slashes. 30 Slashing to Pulsebat A, THEN Haste + Dodge + Movement towards Pulse bat (jumping towards it) THEN 30 Slashing to Puslebat B
3) Combat Tactic: Disengage to Pulsebat B (70 + Slashing + Knockback + Dodge)
*Free Action: Swordplay: Dodge
4) Feel No Pain (Shadow + Time delay (Top of next turn))
5) Dodge
Terra went to work, setting her sights on the Muteant and converting the lush velvet carpet into a road of steel plates. Her feet took in the latent electrical energy beneath her, converting it into a weak static field.

Meanwhile, Trent busied himself trying to bat down the bats, slashing his blade through the air and executing aerial flips. The first bat managed to get away with only minor injuries and retaliated with a sonic wave, but Trent's evasive abilities proved too much for the attack as he avoided it and took down the other bat with relative ease. Her owner preoccupied, Sasha popped open her protective block and ran through the gauntlet of fire viruses to the base of the stairs, though none of them seemed to pay much attention to her. The pulsebat survivor flapped up into the shadows of the high ceiling to hide and lick its wounds.

Carbide did what she did best, creating a solid shield to protect Terra while she sent a disruptive wave below the Muteant. A bubble of electrical energy exploded at the top of the stairs, shocking the virus and putting an end to its interference. The Muteant's deletion also coincided with the sudden volley of flamethrowers from the surrounding Candevils. Having treated them more as decorations than actual threats, Trent and Terra were practically bathed in rows of fire from all angles.

Carbide's shield resisted one attack but the flame continued past it to where Terra was. She was forced to dodge, only to run into another line of fire. It was deflected by her barrier but a third attack got through her line of defenses and roasted the poor navi, exploiting her vulnerability to the element (40 x 2). Trent managed to stay light on his feet and thanks to his training, escaped the multiple jets of fire unharmed. Moreover, he finished mentally bracing himself to endure all sorts of punishment.



MuteAnt: DELETED
CandevilA: 120 HP [left]
CandevilB: 120 HP


CandevilC: 120 HP [further away left]
CandevilD: 120 HP [further away right]
PulsebatA: 50 HP [hiding]
PulsebatB: DELETED

PillarA: 200 HP
CandleA: 60 HP [on PillarA]
PillarB: 200 HP
CandleB: 60 HP [on PillarB]
PillarC: 200 HP
CandleC: 60 HP [on PillarC]
PillarD: 200 HP
CandleD: 60 HP [on PillarD]

Terrain: 40% Normal, 30% Metal (lobby) | 20% Normal, 10% Metal (Y staircase)

Terra.EXE: 90 HP [metal]
Carbide.SP: 40 HP [metal] [1-hit shield]
Trent.EXE: 190 HP [metal] [shadow starting next turn]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP [metal] [30 HP barrier]

Having destroyed the flute virus, Terra and Carbide were able to rest easy, now that their auditory systems weren't being brutally assaulted, and their hands went down from their ears. However, the respite was not prolonged, as the two were bathed in streams of fire from both flanks. Carbide attempted to resist the attack, but the flames licked around her shield, forcing Terra to retreat away.

Unfortunately, she couldn't avoid all of them at once, and one of the streams caught her mid-stride. "Terra!" exclaimed Carbide, looking back at her Navigator with dread. The fire quickly fizzed out, though Terra regained her composure, and attempted to contact their operator. "... Scarlet, are you there?" she said, trying to get the communication link to work.

Just at that time, Scarlet got through, and the errors indicating the battlechip system failures disappeared. "Terra, you all right?" the operator voiced her concern, getting ready to send some battlechips over. "... No... but... send Carbide her preset, and MarkCannon1," said Terra, who found the time to make a rare jab at a witty response. Scarlet was quick to respond, tapping the two keys on the screen that would send in their vital arms. "Be careful."

Back on the battlefield, Terra conducted the planar energy through her boots, forming the static defense field around her as she did before. It wasn't the sturdiest of defenses, but at least it would absorb a blow automatically without her having to pay attention to it. She returned the energy in the form of terrain-changing processes, executing it to break down the floor between Carbide and the candle viruses on their right into a swath of fertile earth.

"... Take the ones on the right... and make another shield, for yourself," said Terra to her SP, as she retreated further towards the back in order to escape the candles' attacks. Carbide felt the battlechip data infused into her processes, and nodded gravely. Pointing her palm towards the ground, she ripped up another chunk of rock, and mounted it on her arm. The chunk quickly shifted into a cannon-like shape, firing a burst of green energy towards the candles. Afterwards, she mounted the other chunk of rock on her free arm, and tried to defend herself as necessary.

Meanwhile, Terra was eyeing the fleeing PulseBat that had been wounded by Trent. From what she had seen earlier, Trent mainly fought using close quarter moves and knives. Loading up her MarkCannon, she drew up a fist of earth from the soil she had just made, and pointed it at the bat. Its innate lock system quickly located the bat with ease, and she fired off a finger from the fist. After that, she wasted no time in getting herself mobile again, careful to keep a look out for any stray firebreathers.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Terra [20 HP Planar Barrier - Metal: Elec]
[1] Terraform: Fertile Soil @ Carbide + CanDevilB/D [Large Soil Terrain Change]
[2] Dodge
[1] ElementalRage1 @ CanDevilB/D [Wood 60 + Line Attack(3) + Terrain-Element] [+100% Soil] {A}
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Carbide [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield: Second Equip]
[3] MarkCannon1 @ PulseBatA [Null 70 + Seeking + Lock-On] {A}
[4] Dodge
With his nimble dodging underway Trent's eyes flashed to Sasha, who was unarmed at the base of the stairs. Feeling happy his dog was safe he looked back to Terra, who had been burned despite the large number of defenses she threw up. Trent shook his head and looked back, having already learned enough from this fight about how Terra fought. As he straightened his posture and spread his feet, his feel no pain mode activated. The shadows on his body and face darkened and hardened, and soon the warrior was standing in a cloak of darkness that hugged tightly to his form. As he raised his head and looked at the candevils, his objective was clear. The sheer amount of firepower that Trent could throw out from this mental state was staggering. No sooner had the shadows formed did they vanish, leaving little trace of their existence, other than Trent's coding matching the shadow defense.

Mark leaned forwards into the camera and let out a happy sigh. Now it was his turn to shine and call the shots. As he analyzed the set up, and also commented happily on the return of communication, he started to notice he would being doing a lot less than he planed. Sadly, the number of chips that the duo had which could wipe the candevils in one sweep were limited to two close combat attacks, and the metagel1. None of the other chips could do the hits needed to restrict the healing from the nearby candles. Disappointed he slotted in the chips without giving directions and leaned back grumpy.

Trent could easily figure out the correct usage of the chips. Loading up the metagel first, the chip was used as originally programed, summoning three blue slimy viruses above the intended targets. Like bombers they dropped, planning to splat unto the candevils below, each tagging one of them as their own. The next chip uploaded was the start of getting up close and personal. Trent left the knives in his hands and summoned the mist convergence unto his right fist. He got his feet moving, fearing not the pain of any incoming attacks, and let the water trail from his massive fist. Once he was upon the target, he pulled the fist back harsh and strong, trying to smash the watery punch on the center mass of the can, hopefully flooding its systems with an element and wiping it from the networks.

Before He started in on the final chip Trent issued an order to Sasha. The first attack command that Sasha had even been given. His jaws were eager for the bite. Although he was only allotted one, Sasha was happy to take it. Moving forwards on his big white feet he approached the nearest Candevil and jumped upon it, trying to swipe a large bite of the side of the virus. Once he landed he dodged and backed away, taking some quick cover from a possible return flamethrower.

The final chip was a personal favorite of Trent's. The aqua knife was loaded unto his trusty knives, each ones blade changing to pure water that held in the form of a knife. Water dripped from each as he pulled the knife back to provide a follow up slash on the hit candevil, to ensure he was deleted. The stab was quick and deadly, the left hand snapping forwards in a forwards pierce. e tore the blade from his stab, returning it back to his side. His attention was turned to the another nearby Candevil.

Before he stared moving Trent looked where Terra was attacking. The other two. Alright then, Trent would just worry about these two here. He descended upon the other other, two knives drawn and ready. Both of them were still under the effects of the aqua knife, which was thirsty for the fire virus. Trent led with his right hand, taking a sweeping strike aimed at the side of the virus before raising his right hand above his head and slamming the second strike downwards before him, hopefully into the virus. Trent backed off and inspected his handy work.

Summary
Trent
1) Metagel to Candevil B, C, D (90 + Aqua + Slow) x2
2) Mist convergence to Candevil A (100 + Impact + Aqua) x2

Sasha
1) Attack Candevil D (15)
2) Dodge

Trent
3) Aquaknife to CanDevil A (60 + Aqua + Slashing) x2
*Free Action: Fast Warrior: Tactical Movement towards Candevil C
4) Aqua Knife to Candevil C (60 + Aqua + Slashing) x2
5) Aqua Knife to Candevil C (60 + Aqua + Slashing) x2
After Terra set up the viruses, Carbide knocked them down with a grassy blast. Trent summoned a trio of blue poops on his half of the targets, extinguishing one but missing another. His mist fist finished the job, scalding the last of the Candevils. The Pulsebat resting in the ceiling was deleted by Terra's MarkCannon, ending the fight.

Floating down from the rafters came a Pulsar battlechip that landed near Terra's foot, with no question as to who it belonged to.

Several paths now lay before them. The grand staircase split left and right to provide two doorways to explore on the upper level - One with a stained glass design and another with a crumbling wooden frame. Meanwhile, two other doors on the ground level remained closed - A rusty metal one and another that looked as if someone had spilled something on it. Of course, the front door wasn't locked either and they could just exit the house altogether. Decisions, decisions...



MuteAnt: DELETED
CandevilA: DELETED
CandevilB: DELETED
CandevilC: DELETED
CandevilD: DELETED
PulsebatA: DELETED
PulsebatB: DELETED

PillarA: 200 HP
CandleA: 60 HP [on PillarA]
PillarB: 200 HP
CandleB: 60 HP [on PillarB]
PillarC: 200 HP
CandleC: 60 HP [on PillarC]
PillarD: 200 HP
CandleD: 60 HP [on PillarD]

Terrain: 10% Normal, 10% Metal, 40% Soil, 10% Grass (lobby) | 20% Normal, 10% Metal (Y staircase)

Terra.EXE: 90 HP [metal] [20 HP elec barrier]
Carbide.SP: 40 HP [soil] [1-hit shield] [2-hit shield]
Trent.EXE: 190 HP [metal] [shadow]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP [metal] [30 HP barrier]

[Battle 1 - Victory!]

Terra get: 630z + Pulsar1 Battlechip + 3 FXP + 18 Bugfrags
Trent get: 630z + 3 FXP + 18 Bugfrags
Terra looked around for any stragglers, and exhaled slowly when she confirmed the lack of surviving enemies. Relaxing slightly, she looked over at her earthen fist, which was lacking an index finger. Waving it around, she began reverting the changes she had made over the course of the battle. She had only been doing it for a few previous battles, but she figured it was the best course of action.

"Your partner's pretty impressive," said Scarlet, observing the battle from her room while idly browsing some bulletin boards. "... Mm," agreed Terra, nodding in affirmation. Trent was certainly a very skilled knife fighter; his moves were smooth and unbroken. Carbide pulled up her shields, and ran up to her Navigator. "Terra, are you okay?" she asked, a concerned look on the SP's face. "... I'm fine," Terra smiled, putting her hand on Carbide's head.

"That's good," sighed Carbide. Terra walked over to her partner, letting her earthen fist disintegrate into the air. "... That was a good fight. ... Should we continue inside?" she inquired, looking up with half-lidded eyes at the stairs. "... It seems like a good place to find more opposition." Meanwhile, Carbide lagged behind, looking up at the two conversing, both visibly much taller than her. Feeling rather left out, she glanced sideways at Sasha, observing earlier that the large hound had mostly lowered his guard. However, she was still hesitant to approach, standing by Terra as she simply looked at the other SP.
Trent held his battle stance as he waited for any other arrivals or other viruses, and relaxed once he saw that there was none. His eyes jumped over to Sasha, who was happily bounding over towards him, the success of the fight having the dog on a loopy high. For a moment the dog forgot that he was in the presence of others and was happy and fun around Trent, nippy at his legs playfully. This stopped once the SP caught the sight of Terra returning her hand and the terrain back to normal. He snapped back to protection mode, and with a serious eye observed the changes that the pair was making to their own form.

Trent wasn't watching what Terra was doing but Mark surely was. The reconstruction and deconstruction of the terrain and her own form was interesting to Mark. That was a very useful skill. "Trent take notes." Mark instructed. Begrudgingly Trent turned to watch. With a blank cold face he said, "Going in more would be a good idea, I want to explore this place. I think upstairs is our best bet for now, more than we want could be down below, there is only so high a house can go."

"Plus," Mark chimed in, "if this is anything like normal houses, the good stuff will all be stashed down stairs. Terra you fight rather well and in a very interesting manner. I don't think I've seen anything similar to it." Trent nodded with a sideways glance to Terra, in agreement with Mark. The motion from Trent felt half-hearted or possibly distracted as he agreed with Mark. His eyes were elsewhere after all.

As Trent and Terra talked and inspected the house for their next move, Sasha was watching both Carbide and Terra with a watchful eye. His gaze was strong until he noticed that the Support Unit was staring silently back at him. He tried to keep up his scan routine, but kept getting caught and stuck in her eyes as they stared back. Sasha lowered his ears back and tried to growl in an intimidating way, but something in him told him that wouldn't work to stop her. Instead, he just started back at her with alert ears and a tilted head, curiously inspecting why she stared.

Trent was slightly oblivious to these events between the support units and said, "How about the stained glass room first?" Without waiting for much of a response Trent walked upstairs and stood outside the stained glass door. With a withdrawn knife and a guard dog on alert at his side, he slowly pushed the door open and looked inside.

{Battle 2? If there is a fight.}
As the decision was made, Terra gestured for Carbide to follow, and she trailed behind last, watchful of their rear flank. There wasn't much else to do but to see what lay behind the stained glass door...

[Battle 2 - Ready]
Terra.EXE: 90 HP
Carbide.SP: 40 HP
The stained glass door opened to reveal a room that looked like a chapel. Large artificially lit stained glass windows lined the walls depicting robed holy figures and armoured knights. Several rows of pews lead up to a raised platform with a large organ and a wide altar with candles. A massive cross hung from the far wall.

There didn't seem to be anything else of interest though Terra and Trent still decided to explore the room. When the door closed behind them, the candles all lit simultaneously and began to melt at a rapid rate. The wax dribbled down the sides of the altar, congealing again to form two HauntedCandle viruses. At the same time, the windows shattered one after another as viruses resembling the designs on them burst through. The space being occupied by the pews made dodging incredibly difficult though they looked like they were made of old wood...



HauntedCandleA: 100 HP [left of altar]
HauntedCandleB: 100 HP [right of altar]
DarkMechA: 90 HP
MettfireA: 100 HP
DarkMechB: 90 HP
MettfireB: 100 HP
DarkMechC: 90 HP
MettfireC: 100 HP
DarkMechD: 90 HP
MettfireD: 100 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal [pews: dodge -25%]

Terra.EXE: 90 HP
Carbide.SP: 40 HP
Trent.EXE: 190 HP
Sasha.SP: 40 HP

[Battle 2 - Begin!]
At first Trent cautiously entered the chapel, keeping his open palm before him and his right knife hand drawn back. Sasha was on the guard as well, his eyes never staying in one place for long. The large dog's head was low and his ears perked as they moved into the room. As they progressed and observed the decor, their guards started to relax as they entered more of the room. That was until the door closed behind them and the candles began to melt. Trent snapped backwards to see the doors closing. His body and mind reacted just as fast as the sounds of shattering glass filled his ears.

A deft hand picked up his other knife and he stood at the ready. This fighting space was sadly very crowded. His legs couldn't get a full range of movement from all of the various pew and obstructions in the way. Trent didn't like not being able to move. "These pews are going to cause an issue."

"Indeed they are," Mark chimed in. "I am going to pull up some research on those viruses as quickly as possible. You moving around a lot is going to be, at the very least, more challenging. Its going to be tough to not get hit this time around, you're only true defense is movement. We should try to drop them sooner rather than later in this case." Mark was quite for a moment for a ding rang out from his side of the screen.

"Seems we have some fire and electric enemies here. The candles we can't do much too, lets ignore those and hope Terra can deal with them off the bat. Lets deal with what we can. The metfires are fire element and the dark mechas are electric. I am going to send in the metagel and the boomerang chips. Here is the fast gauge to help you out a bit. Take these and lets get to work."

Trent was still not thrilled about the obstructions on the field. All he could do was take out the enemies before they could react and hope he is still fast enough in this area. He opened the battle with the fast gauge chip, which caused his form to become more transparent and difficult to see the exact edges of his form. With each movement he made, even the subtle ones, a trail of where his body part was followed behind visibly, making Trent more difficult to track.

Next Trent ordered Sasha to use his collar and get his barrier up, which he promptly executed. Sasha took cover after the blue barrier engulfed him as Trent readied his first offensive move. The boomerang chip was one that Trent was familiar with, but hadn't used in a while. He pulled out a knife, which had been augmented by the chosen chip. The blade was slightly curved and appeared to be made of wood instead of metal. Taking a slight moment to try and line up the correct targets he waited.

As he boomerang was ready to be thrown Trent summoned the metagel above the other viruses, to try to wipe them out first before throwing. Three gels dropped from the top of the chapel to douse the three fire type viruses. Trent let not a second pass by after the gels hit did the throw the boomerang, which sliced around the room quickly circling around the whole chapel before landing again at his feet.

Trent got moving in with knives drawn on the only one of the viruses his metagel had no chance of swamping. The last of the mettfires was in sight as he jumped over the pews and rolled up at the feet of the virus, dealing a quick but effective slash. The slash was nothing more than a set up for the truly deadly part of the attack combo, a rising upwards stab to the midsection. Trent let his weight sight to his back to pick up a large foot and swing it upon the mettfire to knock it backwards, towards Sasha. Sasha was awaiting near by for the whistle, which Trent gave once his feet were both back on the ground. As Trent moved away from the viruses near him Sasha jumped over the pews with a loud growl and tried to snap down upon the mettfire.

Summary
Trent
1) Fast Gauge to Self (+10 dodge rate to self for three turns)

Sasha
1) Protection Barrier to Self -30 HP barrier-

Trent
2) Metagel to Mettfire A, B, C (90 + Slow + Aqua + x3 Targets)
3) Boomerang to Dark Mech A, B, C, D (60 + Arc group attack + wood)
4) Combat Tactic Quick Slashes. 30 Slashing to nothing, THEN dodge + Haste + Movement towards Mettfire D, THEN 30 slashing to Mettfire C
5) Combat Tactic Disengage (70 + Slashing + Knockback towards Sasha + Dodge)
*Free Action: Swordplay: Dodge

Sasha
2) Attack Mettfire D (15)
[Short post... Inspiration blocked as my internet is shot. Sorry for being hella late.]

Walking into the room, Terra and Carbide cautiously surveyed the area, with the latter being quite a bit more vocal about it. "Looks like a pretty big place... but everything's kind of hard to see," commented Carbide. Scarlet added, "Someone spent quite a bit of time on this detail," admiring the stained-glass windows. Terra looked down at the floor underneath them, testing some small shifts with her feet.

Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind them, causing Carbide to yelp out in surprise, pulling up her shield reflexively. At the same time, the glass windows all shattered, eliciting a click of the tongue from Terra as she drew back closer to Carbide. Among the viruses, she noted, were robed staff-wielders, and black robotic swordsmen. A couple of flickering flames also saw two scary-looking candle viruses join in the fray.

"I'm sending in Carbide's ElementalRage. Anything you want, Terra?" said Scarlet, tapping the screen to send the chip to the support program. "... AirStorm, SonicBoom and... Drain?" said Terra, looking at the new chip in the folder with a bit of surprise. "Traded for that. Sending it in," said Scarlet, looking at her watch as she idly tapped three more of the holoscreen buttons. "Where is that room service...?" she muttered.

Back in the network, Terra was already converting much of the chapel's flooring to a shinier finish, focusing on the ground beneath the mechanical viruses, as well as herself and Carbide. The ground beneath her shimmered as a faint translucent sphere of light encased her, protecting her from harm as the barrier did its work. The sphere of light arced with electrical sparks as she stared down the candles in the middle.

Putting her open palms out towards the candle viruses, she gathered three spheres of swirling wind and dust in her hands. She then pitched two of the spheres towards the candles, leaving the last for one of the Mettfires. The spheres grew bigger as the were launched, drawing their targets closer to them before blasting them with a painful gust.

Meanwhile, Carbide had her ElementalRage loaded up, and her rock shield shifted about to once again include a barrel. The ground beneath her glowed, and a burst of light arced from the shiny metal floor towards her shield-cannon. "Better get ready!" she said, attempting a witty line before the cannon discharged; a crackle of lightning burst from the barrel towards the DarkMechs before it shifted back into her usual shield. "C'mon, let's see what you got!" she taunted, having been bolstered in confidence from the past few battles.

Afterwards, Terra formed up a chunk of rock, and imbued the Drain's data into it. Cracks appeared on the sides of the rock almost immediately, before some grotesque teeth appeared, along with some not-very-functional wings. The strange earthen creature then instantly lunged for one of the Mettfires before Terra could give any instructions to it. "... Strange," she commented.

Looking around, she thought that her usual style of bombard-and-run wouldn't work here, with the pews blocking normal movement in that fashion. Her operator seemed to think along the same lines, as she sent in one of the Navi's oft-used chips. "SonicBoom'll take care of most projectile fire if you aim it right. Time it for defense, and try to catch a couple of them in the wave," said Scarlet, as she tapped the sword chip's icon.

"... Thanks," replied Terra, surprised that Scarlet was taking a much more active approach to operating then. She set her defensive sphere with the SonicBoom, overcharging it to give it the battlechip's offensive capability. Now, she simply had to wait. Anything that came her way would be dealt with easily by way of a sonic crash from her barrier.



--- Terra.EXE --- Carbide.SP ---
[*] Terraskill: Reflex Guard 1 @ Self [Reinforced 2-Hit Shield]
[1] Terraform: Tough Steel @ Terra/Carbide + DarkMechs [Large Metal Terrain Change]
[*] Terraskill: Earthen Barrier 1 @ Self [20 HP Planar Barrier - Metal: Elec]
[2] AirStorm1 @ HauntedCandleA/B + MettfireD [Null 50 + Variable Targeting + Pull] {B}
-- Wind Type: Snuff out HauntedCandle flames
[1] ElementalRage1 @ DarkMechA/B/C [Elec 60 + Line Attack(3) + Terrain Element: Metal] [+100% Metal] {A}
[3] Drain1 @ MettfireD [Null 50 + Life Drain] {C}
[4] [Prepared] SonicBoom @ Incoming Projectiles + Any DarkMechs/Mettfires [Null 120 + Wide Attack + Shot Eraser] {B}
Trent's Metagel had a hard time hitting the fast moving Mettfires as they warped around the room trying to find some cover. Only one of them was squashed by a blue jelly and deleted (180). His Boomerang had more success, cutting around the room and striking all but one of the DarkMechs (60)(60)(60). However, he had miscalculated in guessing their element as all of them survived the attack. His slashing combo didn't quite work the way he wanted it to and he partially stumbled over a pew, skewing his aim and allowing his target to escape. In addition, one of the DarkMechs launched a small spark that crept up behind him, temporarily stunning him before it rushed in with a crossing sweep of its blades (5)(10)(10). More elec balls were released but Trent had learned his lesson and moved out of its path and towards Sasha. The ball continued to roll towards him despite his evasion.

Terra did her thing, converting only one half of the church to the ways of metallicism. She was quickly covered by an elec barrier and drew one of the HauntedCandles and a Mettfire towards her (50) (50). The flame on the candle virus went out, causing it to go limp and sad while the Mettfire had no intention of sticking around and warped away. Terra continued to attack with her ElementalRage, literally blasting through the pews, but not really attempting to line up her targets. The DarkMech that escaped the Boomerang earlier was not so lucky this time and was wiped out in the attack (120). She then sent a toothy rock summon after the Mettfire to finish it off, which it did (50). It returned to Terra with recovery data (+50) as she cut down two DarkMech sparkballs, a DarkMech and a Mettfire (120) with her SonicBoom, as well damaging a good section of the wooden benches. The HauntedCandle ignited the floor beneath Terra and Carbide, exhausting her barrier and damaging Carbide and her shield (20) (1-hit).

The surviving Mettfire found refuge behind the still-lit HauntedCandle and crumpled into a heap as if to pray. Sasha leapt at the virus, trying to tear at it with her teeth (15) but it wasn't enough to stop it. The ceiling rumbled as the first of many meteors began to rain down from above.



HauntedCandleA: 50 HP [metal] [extinguished]
HauntedCandleB: 100 HP [right of altar]
DarkMechA: DELETED
MettfireA: DELETED
DarkMechB: DELETED
MettfireB: 85 HP [behind HauntedCandleA]
DarkMechC: 30 HP
MettfireC: DELETED
DarkMechD: 30 HP
MettfireD: DELETED

Terrain: 50% Normal, 50% Metal [pews: dodge -10%]

Terra.EXE: 140 HP [metal]
Carbide.SP: 20 HP [1-hit shield] [metal]
Trent.EXE: 165 HP [haste] [haste] [Homing elec ball]
Sasha.SP: 40 HP [30 HP barrier]
Tap. Tap. Tap.

Mark was drumming his fingers on the wooden desk, letting the sound bounce around the room and into the microphone of the PET, where Trent clearly heard it. Mark leaned forwards. He didn't expect perfection from Trent, except when he used his knives and blades. When he was using his home attacks he shouldn't mess up. A off target shot from a gun was something that Mark thought might go wrong. Trent messing up the plans handed to him slightly was not a surprise. But Trent tripping on his own two feet, that was an issue. So Mark kept drumming.

Trent toned out the noise as best he could, observing the damage down by his teammate, which he was actually rather impressed by. The attack that she used which cleared the pews was powerful to say the least. He would have to get his hands on that chip. He offered a small nod to Terra as he turned his head, she probably wouldn't notice the tiny gesture. Trent changed his focus back to the battle at hand, even with the tapping taking over his ears. He wouldn't have much time to get his bearings straight as the slow elec attack was still creeping at him. He ducked and dodged to the side, trying to avoid it, not sure if he would be able to. With that thing creeping behind him, he had to get moving.

Mark flipped the PET chip delivery over to navi controlled as he kept his fingers tapping. Mark would have to approve the transfer of each chip but his hand hovered over the approval button on the touch screen. Trent would have to take this into his own hands, and both of them knew he would be using only slashing attacks. "Better watch your footing this time," Mark commented. "Got to get moving to be able to deal any damages. I'm letting you pick your blades, I couldn't send them fast enough for you." Mark stopped tapping and put his hand on his forehead. "Tripped. He tripped."

Trent got his feet back under him and sorted quickly through his new found arsenal, and ignored Mark's comments. He already had a plan to finish everything off. Giving a hand signal to Sasha he sent the dog after one of the Dark Mech viruses. Happy to finally be fighting along side Trent the dog ran forwards while the fight withdrew three knives from his leg holsters. He held each by the blade in his left hand, with each handle spread apart. He reached over grabbing one by one as he threw them towards the correct targets. His feet were moving as he did so, running up wards the alter to directly attack the viruses there.

Sasha, meanwhile, was charging into the Dark mech. He jumped into the air with his jaws wide as he tried to clamp down on the target. Once his feet hit the ground Sasha let his massive weight carry his momentum around to the back side of the viruses where he skidded to a halt. Pushing off with his back feet he went in for chomp number two, this time trying to latch down harder and holding unto the target.

Trent moved up the steps of the alter, his large boots carrying him up quickly as he kept check on where the slow electric ball attack was at. Once at the alter he switched his weight to his left foot and darted quickly to his right, landing him close to the center of the alter. The dodge move was meant for either the electric ball, or for any meteors and return attacks. Lots of things could easily hit him. Once in place Trent pulled out the moonblade chip. In one hand he held the blade, and in the other he kept a reverse grip knife, for pulling others in closer.

His hand lashed out at the mettfire, trying to lace the knife around the side or back of the virus, then he yanked his hand back. With luck the virus would come along, and off he force of the pull he started the moonblade chip to clip both as quickly as possible. He started spinning on the balls of his feet, the force from the knife moving him in a large circle. Trent didn't hang around to see if the attack had actually connected. He pulled out another knife and started the widesword attack. If the pull hadn't connected he would be able to use the widesword to hit both in a flurry of slashes and stabs.

Trent moved towards the alter and jumped behind it, trying to avoid further damage. He peeked over at Sasha, who had finished wrestling with the virus and was now taking steps backwards. Mark didn't say a word as he switched the chip input back to manual. Hopefully Trent executed things properly.

Summery
Trent
1) Dodge
2) Kunai to DarkMech C, Mettfire B, and Hauntedcandle B (30 + Slashing + Variable Targeting)
*Free Action: Fast Warrior: Passive Movement up the steps to the alter near the Candle and the Mettfire

Sasha
1) Bite Attack to DarkMech D (15)
2) Bite Attack to DarkMech D (15)

Trent
3) Dodge while moving towards the alter
*Free Action: Get Back Here: Passive Pull on Mettfire B Pulling it closer to the Lit HauntedCandleB
4) Moonblade to MettfireB and HauntedcandleB (90 + Slashing + Spin Attack)
5) Widesword to MettfireB and HauntedcancleB (80 + Slashing + Wideattack)
*Free Action: Swordplay: Dodge behind alter