Aetuornos Beta 1-6

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1-6: Tactical Dry Run

The party reconvened next to the shop. "You got your spells all set up?" Kite asked, to which Aranthra nodded.
"I kind of hope we encounter something minor on the road, to shake down our teamfight and the new spells in an environment other than 'dark cave surrounded by giant spiders'," the mage said.

"Yeah, me too~. I'm eager to show off what I can do," she said, twirling her gohei around between her hands a bit.
"This game is awesome, right?" Scylla said, feeling a bit like she'd found a kindred spirit.
"Oh, f'rsure," the fox-girl nodded. "I can't hardly believe all this came outta human imaginations alone."

The four of them headed out, the physical fighters up front while the mage and the miko walked side-by-side behind them. "I don't want to be rude or anything," Aranthra said after a moment, "but uh..."
"Yeah? You got a question, ask it," Kite invited her.
"Is your accent..for real? I mean, I thought Kitsune were from Japan."
"Oh, sure, we started as a race out that way, 'least if the legends are to be believed," she said, balancing her staff on the palm of a hand and looking up at the top of it. "But you better believe we're all over the world nowadays." She moved her hand up enough to toss the staff slightly in the air, let it fall, and caught it in the other hand before putting it away. "I'm pretty in tune with human society myself, really. My pa's non-magic, see, and just so happened to catch a particular fox while he was out huntin' one day."

"Are you..trying to say that's how your parents met?" the mage said, incredulous.

"Yee-up. May surprise you to know, but for all our tricks a lot of foxes actually enjoy bein' caught. I mean—not actual, animal foxes a'course, since that usually ends in death, but nowadays us Kitsune can usually expect to survive bein' caught and turn it into a whole new, diff'rent game with the captor afterward."

"Foxes and their games," Jesse commented with a note of exasperation.
"Hey, you're playin' a game right now," Kite retorted with a slight giggle. "Games're a great way to get to know someone. Seein' how folks react to unexpected situations can be both hilarious and illuminatin'. And I say nothin' brings out a peroson's true character quite like tryin' to provoke 'em into an incoherent rage."

"Waait a minute," Aranthra said, piecing something together for the first time. "Are you telling me Kitsune are, by and large, an entire race of trolls?"

"Hahahah!" Kite laughed. "More'r'less! At least we're the fun sort, though."

"How 'bout you, Jesse? If you ain't human, and I know you're not a fox unless you're putting on a mighty big act, what're you?"
"Cat," the sheep-girl replied simply. "I admit I felt a little lost without most of my tail at first, but it's a little illuminating. I always wondered how people balanced themselves without them."

"From experience, the answer is 'not as well'," the fox-girl said with a slight chuckle. "Right, Scylla?"

"Huh? Um, I dunno. I thought I had super-balance because I'm an ultra-agile samurai and stuff," she said. "I'm sure someone without a tail could pull off the same stunts with enough practice."
"Well, sure. But a counterweight helps an awful lot if you want to learn all that stuff in the real world," Kite said. "Anyhow, I'm already havin' a hard time imagining you without that cute, fluffy tail~."

"Eheheh," the wolf-girl blushed, her ears lowering slightly in response to the compliment. It was weird, even though almost nothing about this body resembled her real one it still felt like it was all hers, even in conversation like this.

"Soo, Neko then?" Aranthra said. "Are you guys from Japan too—I mean, uh, originally?"
"Egypt, actually," Jesse said with a slight sigh in her voice. "Or at least that's the most popular theory. Some of the same theorists say a group of Kitsune worked hard to popularize our modern name as some sort of elaborate prank."

"Suure, blame the foxes," the miko said, spreading out her arms a bit in a mock-sarcastic expression. "Maybe y'all really just liked Japan at the time."

"Who can say?" the sheep-girl replied neutrally. "Honestly, though, I find it difficult to believe any race can be meaningfully traced back to any modern geographical region. The world was a very different place when we all first came into being."

"Are ya a history buff, Jesse?" Kite asked.

"Not particularly. I've had opportunity to study it, but it's far from my area of expertise."

"Ooh, what would that be, then?"

"Hey, monsters in the sky!" Scylla said, pointing up and forward—saving the sheep-girl the need to fool a fox, at least for the moment. There were three bright-green shapes rapidly approaching from above. "Think they're diving at us, too."

"My 'lore knowledge' informs me those things breathe fire," Aranthra said.
"Oh? Well, not on us," the miko said, taking her gohei out again and pointing it skyward, beginning to chant something.

"I am unclear on how we can fight something that flies," Jesse stated.
"I'll clip their wings," the mage said. "Anyway, I'm pretty sure you two can jump."

"Ooh! Can Kite make a barrier for me to double jump with?" the wolf-girl said excitedly.

"Heads up!" At this point the monsters in question finished their approach, diving close enough to be seen just before gouts of flame streamed down at the party. They were like fat, miniature dragons, with wings that looked unable to properly support their weight; their scales were dark green everywhere but the undersides, the brighter green which Scylla had noticed earlier, and they had bright yellow eyes, thick tails with a thin row of bright green frills atop them, short muzzles full of sharp teeth, short, spiky horns on their heads and claws at the ends of the four stubby limbs hanging down from their upper bodies.

The fire stopped short of the party, racing across a wide horizontal barrier, a frame of regular hexagons visibly glowing a similar bright pink to the fox-girl's hair as it did its work and the fire dispersed harmlessly off either of its sides, far from the monsters' targets. As soon as the attack was over the glow dissappeared, the barrier dispelled.

Aranthra, just now finished chanting a spell, sent a blade skyward toward the flying lizard-beasts. As it reached their height, following behind them, she did a sort of flick with her staff and the blade broke off into three smaller ones, their velocity abruptly changing to a higher speed in a much more horizontal direction. One missed entirely; another grazed the side of her target; but a third managed to bury itself into a wing, cutting through its thin webbing and making the monster careen out of control toward the ground. The other two fire-breathers whirled around, headed to dive at the party with more fire breath.

"Scylla, jump!" The fox-girl said. The samurai nodded, leaping her highest into the air and placing her feet below her, expecting ground where there was none. A foot or so from her peak height, she found it, a much smaller barrier which shattered on impact from the full force of her weight—but not before she leapt up and forward off of it with just enough speed to reach one of the monsters. Her hand was on the hilt of her still-sheathed sword, and when she came close enough there was a sudden flash of motion ending with her behind it; then she spun in the air like a ballerina just enough to turn and face the other still-flying beast, and the same thing happened again, this time ending her lower toward the ground, headed for a somewhat rough landing. Nonetheless, on her way she sheathed her sword and a long gash appeared in each of the monsters' wings, making them drop toward the ground spewing fire wildly as they went.

Jesse ran and jumped, catching the wolf-girl in her arms; Kite and Aranthra scattered off away from the fire-breathing beasts' landing zone. Then the sheep-girl landed neatly on her feet, setting Scylla down quickly as the one Aranthra had grounded came running toward the two of them.

"Sweet catch!" The wolf-girl ran up toward the monster, brandishing her sword unsheathed at it until it drew its head back and spat a fireball her way, which she neatly dodged around. Jesse took the cue to run around to one side, and swung hard at the thing's side, the claws in her glove scratching through its tough scales to make somewhat shallow, but bleeding, cuts.

Aranthra threw a V-shaped blade of light from her staff, the sharp tip burying itself into the side of one of the two just-landed monsters just as they were getting their bearings. Both of them turned toward her, scratching the ground before charging—and both rammed their horns straight into a barrier as soon as they'd built up some speed, recoiling away as the pink-hexagon-walls shattered. "Nope!" Kite said from behind them.

The monster Jesse had hit started biting and clawing at her, which she simply backed away from, waiting for an opening. The instant Scylla was done dodging the fireball from that one, she'd turned to run after the other two, and now caught up just as they were shaking their heads to recover from ramming them straight into the barriers. "Heey, I didn't forget you guys!" she said, running in to deliver a quick flurry of slashes toward them, making both back away a couple of steps—all their attention on her—and then fire wide gouts of flame her way. "Hup!" She leapt and backflipped away, landing behind a hastily-built barrier wall just wide enough to let the flame flow around it to either side of her, and stuck out her long tongue at the beasts from behind it to provoke them further.

Now Jesse went around a swipe and grabbed her opponent's tail in both hands, swinging it around to throw it Scylla's way. "Incoming!"

"Yep!" The samurai whirled and swung her blade out of its sheath, catching the beast full in the underside and making a deep gash across it, the swipe altering its momentum to one side of her just enough so it continued on past her, knocking into one of the two she'd just been busy with. The other one was occupied with swiping its claws defensively at a flurry of sparks from Aranthra.

"I think their undersides are weak," the mage commented. "Just like the hedgehog-wolves."

"Ya mean 'spiny jackal things'?" the miko said, placing a barrier in the way of the monster's attempt to retort with a fireball, causing it to explode in the monster's face, doing minimal damage to its muzzle.

"On it," Jesse said, arriving just behind that beast, grabbing its injured wings and pulling back, forcing it onto its hind legs. "Hurry!"

Aranthra fired a previously prepared peircing shot, landing it square into the beast's underside and drawing a gout of blood from it while it continued to struggle, its head flailing around while spouting fire to try and make the sheep-girl let go. Jesse kicked it in the back so it fell forward, the ground driving the mage's projectile a little farther in just before it dissipated.

The other two beasts had recovered by now, but Scylla winked at them, making a 'come-on' gesture with her hand which enraged them into charging her—and bonking their heads into Kite's barriers again. Then she ran up, slashing upwards at one's chin with the flat of her blade to whack it and flip it over before hopping just far enough into the air to land her feet on its underside, driving her blade hard into it. This was the one she'd slashed a moment ago, and it struggled briefly, wildly spewing fire from its mouth, before going limp, its legs spreading out around it. Then she quickly yanked the weapon out and leapt out of the way of a fireball thrown by the other beast, turning mid-fall so she was facing it with her sword drawn while it quickly skittered around to face her.

The brawler ran from her most recent target as it slowly pushed itself back onto its feet, ducked under the fireball that had just missed Scylla and then kicked the dead beast's body into the live one, bowling them both away before it could try to attack the wolf-girl again. "Hey! Watch where you're kickin' stuff!" This happened to be in the fox-girl's direction, so she quickly ran away to one side of their trajectory.

"Oh—sorry."

Aranthra was also busy running, as she saw that fireball falling right toward her, and so when the miniature dragon she'd just shot recovered it was able to start running too—right toward her. "HEEELP!" It almost caught up before anyone could lend her aid, but she threw a glimmerblast its way, making it recoil back a bit, and then managed to use this distraction to buy some distance away from it.

The two physical fighters exchanged a very brief glance, and then Scylla ran to catch the beast chasing the mage while Jesse went after the one she'd just kicked over, jumping over it and the dead one to land on the opposite side of it as it recovered its feet. It snapped its head back to breathe fire, and—after very briefly looking toward the miko to see she was prepared—the sheep-girl took several quick steps backwards, making just enough space for a barrier to form and block the gout of flame that followed.

Scylla caught up with her quarry easily, slashing once at its side to knock it off-course and get its attention; it turned as it skidded across the ground, drawing its head back and tossing a fireball toward her which she danced around easily while approaching it. Aranthra was still busy catching her breath from all the running, so the samurai made some more false slashes the monster's way to keep its attention until she could cast something.

As before, Jesse dodged a couple of swipes before darting around her opponent, then grabbed its tail and swung it up over her head, slamming it down onto its back. The fox-girl withdrew one of the spell papers they'd bought and tossed it up and forward in the upended beast's direction, imbuing it with her power in the process; it folded itself rapidly into a paper spear that should have needed much more material than it had, then went flying into the monster's belly with a downward swing of the miko's staff, planting itself far deeper than something made of such a fragile material should have been able to.

Seeing that her friend was ready, Scylla rotated her blade, darted around to one side of her opponent and stuck it just under the monster's belly with its flat parallel to the ground before giving a hard, two-handed swipe upward to flip it onto its side. Then she darted out of the way and Aranthra quickly fired another piercing shot into its exposed underbelly, knocking it the rest of the way over onto its back where it struggled, breathing fire wildly again, before going still.

Jesse grabbed the hilt of the spear and pushed down, finding it briefly solid before the magic keeping it that way wore off and it fell apart into pink cherry blossoms in her hand, fluttering away on the wind. Still, this last bit of injury proved enough to finish off the monster, and she had to quickly leap away to keep its parting gout of flame breath from singing her legs.

"Hahhh...hff.." Aranthra doubled over, panting somewhat loudly as her breath hadn't been entirely caught before chanting that last spell.
"Heey, we did pretty good, right?" Scylla said, coming over to put a supportive hand on her friend's back. "No injuries or anything."
"Ff..that's pretty..hff, bare minimum," the mage said, slowly straighting as the others came closer. "I'd say we work pretty well together but there were mistakes. The number one priority should be to keep enemy targeting and proximity far away from me and Kite so we can do our jobs effectively. If she hadn't been running then she could've put up a barrier to stop that fireball."

"Yep! My number one weakness is I gotta stand still and plant my feet firmly to make barriers," the fox-girl reported. "Well—that and I'm about as tough as a sheet a' paper."

"My apologies for the mistake," the sheep-girl said with a small nod. "In hindsight, Scylla had that enemy under control and I would have been better served chasing the other live one down. But speaking of paper—I suppose the spear was a one-use item?" Jesse said.
"Mm-hm; they ain't just spears, either. I can choose to turn 'em into swords, hammers, knives—any of the usual melee weapons. I got a few more, f'r now; gotta be careful how I use 'em until I'm rich enough to buy a hunderd at a time," she said.

Aranthra continued: "Tricks we need to keep in mind for the future: Blocking enemy projectiles so they explode in their face, using barriers as a double-jump platform...I guess your insta-slash thing can act as a jump extension too?" she asked the wolf-girl.

"Seems so! I can only chain a few at a time until I train the skill up, though, and my landing isn't great."

"In terms of rapid height gain, I could also throw you," Jesse said. "That may have achieved the same height as the extra midair jump."

"Ooh! They could be combined to go even higher!" Scylla said excitedly.

"All good suggestions for another flying enemy," Aranthra said, "or I guess if the spiders in the mine try to hang out on high walls or the ceiling."

"Mm-hm. For gettin' down, a barrier midway down would hurt a bit, but maybe break the fall for less overall injury," the miko said. "Maybe even delay it enough for her to catch ya again. Also, you run faster than her, don'cha?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Scylla nodded. "Samurai are kinda 'speedy speed tank', while brawlers are more about strength and toughness."
"So if someone needs help and you're both the same distance away, you're up, no question."
"Mm-hm!" the wolf-girl nodded.

"Even if I am a little closer, you'll likely close the gap faster," Jesse agreed. "On the other hand, if I have the opportunity to throw one opponent at another, the projectile will move faster than either of us."
"Just as long as it doesn't bowl into one of us again," the mage agreed.

Scylla jerked upright, realizing something. "Hey, why aren't we grabbing the loot while we talk!?"

"..Oh, right," Jesse nodded, remembering this was a thing again. The other two had similar reactions, and the party spread out to pick up some piles of scales, teeth, and one or two spheres of some sort which glowed red. "What is this?" she asked, holding one up where Aranthra could see it.

"Monster core, needed for enchanting and useful for lots of other crafting too. Looks fire elemental to me, which makes sense with what we just fought."

After they traded things around a bit and agreed it to be a more or less even split, the party continued on northward.

"Heey, is that a cave entrance I see on the horizon?" Scylla said, pointing.
"Looks like," Kite agreed. "Guess we oughta get ready to fight some giant spiders."

"Yeah. Speaking of—" Aranthra said, "I've got a spell that will enchant your weapons with fire magic, which they should be weak to. It'll look like your weapons—so, I guess your hands, Jesse—are actually on fire, but it won't hurt you at all. So just don't panic if you see that, 'kay?"
"Yep!" the wolf-girl said.

"I appreciate the warning," the sheep-girl nodded.