driftfleet | (no subject)

... I'm going to have to give a lecture on targeting at some point, I swear.

Sure, I'll be down there soon.

[ Targeting? What?

Well, she agreed on the beach, so she guesses it doesn't matter anyways. ]

Alright, I'll be here.

[Sorry, Ino, she's made of JRPG bullshit.

Soon enough, she's managed to get an SR shuttle down there, and... well, with no more tea leaves, she still hasn't slept in a while, and she's wearing a weird black robe, and carrying what appears to be a fallen tree branch.]

How strong are you, anyway?

[... yeah, that's like a greeting]

[ She's trying to get that stuff together for you, girl! It's just taking some time ;; ]

I'm not really sure I could explain it with a ranking system that would mean anything to you.

It's fine, I'll figure it out myself.

[She looks at Ino and her eyes glow brightly for just a moment as she cats Scan.]

[ And she just squints, like ... what are you doing Nightingale ... ]

Uh, you mean in combat or something ... ?

[Higher level than her, in one-on-one... Well, this looks bad for her, but maybe she can figure something out. No one else knows what she can do, so...

On the other hand, Ino's stats are weird. Nightingale knows what a ninja's stats are supposed to look like- she went on a date with one once, that was awful- and a magic-heavy ninja with poor physical stats for their level either meant she had weighted stats that went way counter to what her class was, or that 'medic' bit made her a special exception.

It's probably the latter, because really, it's always the latter.]

Well, I guess in a manner of speaking. Are you ready?

[ When you can contact an entire 10,000 member army at the same time with telepathy using your special energy, your stats are a bit wonky. Hell yeah mind powers. ]

Yeah, sure. [ She'll tuck a stray hair behind her ear, before sliding into a defensive and ready position ]

[Nightingale isn't waiting for her to get into position- As soon as Ino confirms she's ready, Nightingale's thrusting her staff forward with a waving motion, causing a ball of fire to erupt around Ino, rather than the pillar. The interesting thing is that the attack moves with Ino, like it's locked onto her, and it affects nothing but her.

Sorry, Ino, she fights like an asshole.]

[ Oh. Well. Okay then.

Are you trying to kill her before she can make you that tea, Nightingale?!

She's yelping a little, but she's using her ninja skills to teleport out of where she was previously, leaving behind a small log in the place of where she was standing before. She'll reappear behind Nightingale, and if she's not still ... you know, pretty much on fire, she'll be tossing a few throwing knives in her direction (aimed at non-vital points, of course!) ]

[SHE KNOWS YOUR HP SHE'S NOT GOING TO KILL YOU

Still, knives make her grimace as she doesn't even move to do anything but take the knives. Ino's strength may be low, but the level difference means it's going to hurt her like a bitch anyway. Added to her other self-imposed handicap of only using the spells she's used here before, victory doesn't seem possible to her, but damn if she's not going to try.

The fire fades after a few seconds, but Nightingale swings her "staff" again, and this time, the fire pillar erupts out of the ground just like on the fungi. Though, it's also worth mentioning, her spells are much weaker than they look like they should be- Not nearly as hot, not nearly as painful. Equipment is important, kids.]

[ WHY DID YOU NOT DODGE THAT, NIGHTINGALE. SHE IS SO CONFUSED. In fact, it makes her gape for a moment before that fire pillar comes her way ]

-- ?!

[ This fire is really getting annoying. But at least it isn't as bad as a Chidori or something ...

Anyways, she'll be teleporting away from the fire again, this time right next to her, to try and sweep a leg under hers and trip her up ]

Fuck-!

[Down she goes, and by this point it's probably obvious- Nightingale is extremely unused to fighting alone. Still, the after-cast cooldown time expires quickly enough (or, to be more precise, her ATB gauge fills up again) and she rolls, springing upright quickly, and slamming her staff downwards, to cast another pillar of fire.

(Current MP: 195/270)]

[ By now, she's been able to connect the movement of Nightingale's staff with the fact that there's probably going to be fire coming her way when she moves it, and so she teleports out of the way once more ... before darting forward to try and grab her by the staff hand to keep her from moving the staff again ]

[Perfect. The motion actually isn't part of the spellcasting, but rather, it's something Nightingale worked into her casting specifically to fuck with people who don't know her magic- If she moves like that, it looks like the motion is connected, but also conceals the fact that the fire takes a couple of seconds to cast. It's tricks she developed sparring with her vampire asshole teammate.

Nightingale immediately grabs Ino's arm, with a huge shit-eating grin, and casts the pillar of fire again, trying to hold her in place. The branch doesn't move at all, nor does Nightingale, yet the fire comes out of the ground unabated.]

[ Welp, that was an unfortunate gamble to lose on. She gasps, but fortunately with one arm free she can still reach her other hand to cast her teleportation jutsu. She's quick to regain her composure once she's out of the flames again, letting out a little laugh ]

Not bad ...

[ It certainly fooled her, anyways! She remembers Nightingale mentioning that she needed a staff of some kind to conduct her magic, but maybe that was a bluff, too ... ?

Either way, if she's incapacitated on the ground she probably can't still cast her magic, so she'll be darting towards her again quickly ... but this time, she puts her hands together and several "clones" appear by her side, all running towards Nightingale together in an attempt to knock her over ]

[To be honest, Nightingale has no idea how to handle a foe like Ino. Being able to teleport out of a casting spell shouldn't be possible by her world's rules. Now clones? She's already analyzing the move, looking around to check them all. In the span of an instant, she's made some important observations: Each can be targeted, each is indistinguishable from the real Ino- Scan could likely tell them apart, if nothing else than by their HP count, but she doesn't have time to cast right now. They're distinct, so it's not just a status buff on Ino. They're all individual targets, so they can likely all take individual actions... which means this just got very, very bad for her. A simple group-cast spell should make short work of figuring things out... if that wasn't one of the skills she never regained at the castle.

Honestly, before she lost all her memories, she likely wouldn't have even tried to fight back. This is where the situation gets too bad, too hopeless, so she'd give up. But Nightingale's spent so long sparring with a couple of assholes who wrestle dinosaurs for fun that she's gotten stronger. She's still weak, but it's not like Ino looks that heavy... And besides, Bluebird's proven to her that stupid, reckless plans can be the most effective.

She hurls her staff at the center Ino, then charges right back into them. And with an angry, wordless shout, she tries to grab the nearest one's wrist with both hands, and use her own momentum to swing the Ino into the others like an oversized baseball bat.

She'll hit a motherfucker with another motherfucker.]

[ Well! That ... sure is a move.

The clones that she hits disappear in a puff of smoke, either with her staff or with ... Ino herself! Because yes, she did manage to grab the real one, which will become apparent enough once she's dispersed the rest of them.

At first Ino was a little startled, but she quickly realizes that she can try and turn this around in favor of her again. She turns her hand in Nightingale's grasp to get a better hold on her should she choose to let go, and as soon as she can manage to scrape the ground with a foot to get any kind of leverage she'll be pulling hard to lift Nightingale off the ground entirely and slam her back into the sand ]

[Nightingale's not hard to lift off the ground, and once she hits the ground, she's struggling to get back out of the pin. In this position, she's more or less forgotten any ideas she had about keeping her spells hidden- She wants to win, now. And if direct damage race is out- of course it was out, she's regretting that she wasted so much MP on something that should have been obvious- she'll have to try a different strategy.

So, let's try status effects. Without movement, she casts Sleep, trying to put Ino unconscious for long enough to get some distance.]

[ Sleep isn't really a thing that Ino's ever seen used in a fight before, so it takes her by surprise ... and she keels over flat on her face. Oops. ]

[That gives her time to go retrieve the branch she's using as a staff, pick it up, and cast Fire 3 (the fire pillar) again on Ino's sleeping form. The sleep magic is negated by Ino taking damage, of course, but her crazy bullshit ninja magic can't teleport her out of the spell while she's asleep, right? ... Right?]