Smoke and Mirrors [Open─Party of Two]

[Ariane Ivers]

While she was admittedly getting tired pummeling the small fry of the jungle near her home, she had to admit they did give her quite a good amount of practice with her persona.  She had already noticed how much stronger she felt, and while they didn't quite give her the answers she really wanted they did at least give her the chance to make it easier to do so in the long road.  The last time she had summoned Cery she swore she felt something different in the one spell she used the most often, and she wanted to test the theory to see what exactly that had meant.  What better way than by beating up the weakling faeries that had a habit of showing up here?

She had already utilized her Evoker, and the Cerynitian Hind quietly floated alongside her as she walked through the overgrown wasteland.  As was per usual, Ariane wore simple clothing; a teal T-shirt over dark bluejeans, and her heavy pair of boots.  Her red hair was pulled back in braids to keep it out of her face, her clenched knuckles bound in their usual bright-green fist wraps, although by this point they had gotten quite a good amount of use out of them.  She offhandedly noted that it may be getting time to upgrade them, since they were what she got the most use out of.  Cery certainly could pack a punch, but not as much as, well, her actual punch.  At the very least it always felt better to actually punch the bad guys in the face rather than just let Cery take care of them.

Ariane kept close to cover as much as she could, but she knew by this point it was mostly pointless.  As long as she could keep an eye on her surroundings so nothing could completely sneak up on her, that was what mattered.  Her emerald eyes darted to the side, seeing movement.  This time it didn't see like anything hostile─at least not yet─but just another person.  It seemed she lucked out pretty often when it came to hunting around in here.  As long as they didn't try anything funny, that was all that mattered.

[Lucretia Odovacar]

There wasn't much reason for Lucretia to be here today.  She had thoroughly explored the area, and while she did think it was possible she could have missed something, she had a different reason for being here today.  She wanted to learn how to fight.  

Lucretia was a very skinny girl with minimal strength and next to no flexibility and agility.  Her persona may have given her physical abilities beyond what most humans would have, but she was still pretty weak compared to her foes.  She also had no battle sense or experience, so if she wanted to be able to fight at all, she had to fix that.  Beating on weaker creatures seemed like the best way to do that.  Her senses actually suggested that these creatures may be weaker than her now.  She wasn't quite sure how such strength was measured, but she had no reason to doubt it.

There was another person there, and Lucretia didn't need her eyes to see her.  In fact, she was aware of her presence for quite some time.  Ariane was an offensive user if she remembered correctly, so she would make for some good insurance.  If things went bad, Ariane would be able to handle it.  They had met each other out here several times now, so she didn't feel the need to introduce herself, or even speak.  Lucretia just waved as she approached.  

[Satanick]

Another one for the pile.

Troll
Absorb: Ice
Resist: Strike
Weak: Fire
Skills: Viper Smash, Bufula, Power Charge, Rakukaja, Regenerate 1

[Lucretia Odovacar]

Lucretia reached into her pockets as she scanned the enemy.  Today, she only had some shiny marbles, a few wads of paper that had some notes she didn't care about anymore, and a piece of chain link fence she cut off a from a fence a few days ago.  It would be difficult, but she was sure she could make do with these items.  Her persona made it so much easier to find a use for them.

Then, she saw the enemy's information.  Lucretia was quite certain that her only damage type qualified as 'strike' damage; damage using blunt weapons.  Well shit.

She put the items back into her pockets and slinked back as usual.  Lucretia fought along side this girl several times in the past, and hiding behind a pole somewhere was what she did every time, so this shouldn't look any different.  As she scurried to a suitable hiding place, she called out the creature's information as usual.  This time though, she saw a little bit  more than usual.  Perhaps all this practice was actually paying off.

"Ice makes it feel better, striking does not hurt it very much, and fire hurts it a lot.  It can do..." she paused, "A fairly strong punch, and can focus its energy to make the punch stronger, a fairly strong ice attack, and can make attacks hurt less.  It will also heal a little bit."

[Ariane Ivers]

As the other person came into view, Ariane responded to the wave with one of her own.  Out of anyone she's met here, Anne has had the most encounters with this girl.  Not that there was anything wrong with it, by any means.  She had a tendency to like beating things up on her own anyway, and considering Lucretia's ability was mainly to tell her the ins and outs of the enemies, it worked out well for the both of them.  Anne had to admit it was kind of amusing, though, considering her and the one of the other Persona users she had met had discovered that there were quite a few others. 

She opened her mouth to muse how they needed to stop meeting like this, when the sound of sudden loud thumps came their way.  Frowning and turning to see what it was, her eyes widened.  Well.  That was certainly bigger than the chums she had grown used to fighting.  Cracking her knuckles and stretching her neck, she tensed her legs to get ready to start pummeling it when she heard Lucretia announce what she found out.

"Really?" she groaned, tilting her head backwards in an exaggerated glance up at the sky.  Punching the crap out of the baddies was what she was good at, and here she was being told it wouldn't do really any good now.  Looking at the thing she supposed it made sense considering it's build, but that didn't mean she had to like it.  Lucretia continued to explain it's spells too, something Anne didn't remember her being able to do before.  At the very least it didn't have any fire spells, so that was a plus she supposed.  

Holding a hand up next to her before pointing forward, the Hind complied and held up her dagger.  For a brief moment Anne thought she saw the image of four other daggers with it as she threw it towards the large creature, but they all seemed to disappear as soon as they left her hand.  She had a feeling Skewer had changed, and the name of it lingered there at the edge of her mind.  Whatever it was looked as though it may be able to hit multiple targets─figures that now she's fighting just the one.  Right after the dagger hit it's mark the big ol' Troll growled in pain and held it's giant arms up next to itself before glowing.  It's skin seemed to grow even denser than it was before, if that was possible, and Anne gritted her teeth.  "I'm gonna assume that was it making attacks hurt less.  Friggin' lame."  She spoke in English as she said she would the last time they met, more to herself than anything.  

Keeping distance between herself and it since she knew her fists wouldn't do any good, she'd keep with using her quick feet that were only reinforced by the spell Cery had cast at the start of the battle.  Raising a hand again, eyes glued to the troll, she gestured to the Hind again, "Hama."

Raising her blade above her head, light seemed to collect on it before shooting towards the troll.  With luck on her side it certainly seemed to leave a painful dent as the oaf growled again, lifting it's huge arm before dashing at her with more speed than should have made sense with as big as it was.  Taken back by this it was all Anne could do to lift her arms in front of her to take the brunt of the attack, just about biting her tongue off in unexpected pain.  Well that hurt.  As it lifted it's arm again she leapt backwards quickly, flicking her wrist towards the Hind again.  

As Anne landed on her feet a ways away, light struck the creature once more, although not quite as powerful a hit as before.  Her luck must not have been with her there.  Still, it at least looked like it was struggling, which was a good thing.  Roaring it brought it's arms up again and charged her, but she was ready this time.  If just barely.  As it brought it's arm down at her she jumped to the side hands first, landing on them and using the momentum to flip a ways away from it.  Turning back, with another gesture more light came down on the giant.  For a brief moment it came to it's knees and Anne thought that was that.  Considering the nice limber feeling from the spell was wearing off, it would have been appreciated.  Instead, it struggled to stand back up, grumbling as it's fists began to glow. 

Scowling, she shook her head, a braid breaking lose and falling against her face.  "Hell no."  One last gesture towards the Cerynitian Hind followed by another burst of light, and the lumbering Oaf was gone before it could use it's beefed up attack.  As annoying as that was, it was nice practice in not just punching the crap out of things.  Also to not assume just because somethings big and fat it can't book it to attack if it needs to.