Mosaic City, located along China's coast, is quite large city sometimes called the Crossroads Between Nations due to its diverse population. While it was once a large tourist spot, the city was placed under a blockade as the military appeared claiming there was a radiation leak. The true hazard, however, is much more sinister.
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 2, 2014 19:15:22 GMT -5
Kyle's grin evaporated into surprise and awe at the powerful display of this guy's Persona. Now that was a sight to behold. All that raw power coming from that dark knight was almost overwhelming and his mouth went dry, just watching the damn thing go. This guy was serious business. Kyle thought he'd been the bees knees until now but this display was a stern and somber reminder that he was very much still a newbie to this. Still, this gave him an inkling to what he might be able to achieve given time and with enough experience.
He snapped out of it when Vice addressed him again. There was one Shadow left.
"You got it," he said and found his smirk again.
He called Sitri out again. The leopard's appearance now looked somewhat...sedate compared to Vice's Persona but Kyle still couldn't really get over the fact that he could summon this creature and command it like he did.
"Give 'em hell, furball," he said bluntly and willed an attack.
Sitri crouched, its body tensed like a well-wound spring and then leaped at the Shadow with a fierce roar. It brought its clawed paws down and a horrible noise like sharpening scissors or the drop of a guillotine blade came with the motion. The Shadow flailed and wobbled like shattered jelly. It was then bifurcated when Kyle stepped up and brought the axe down like a carefree lumberjack.
"Chip-chop, chip-chop, the last man's dead, baby~" he chuckled and shouldered the axe again.
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
Vice wasn't that person who'd consider himself to be hard to please. Of course, the more talk a person had in them, the more Vice would make it difficult to impress him. Thankfully, Kyle wasn't that type of person and even had a streak in him that reminded the biker a lot of his own. Specially the whole chopping part. Had the graduate learned the way of the axe rather than swords, he might as well have been doing the same thing. A light grin spread through the chinese man's face as the battle concluded. There weren't any incoming shadows in the horizon and the place was more or less cleared out enough that they can continue making some progress in terms of exploring and marking the place down for possible break spots.
"Heh. Good job with the axe, Mr. Starbucks. Didn't know you had it in you."
It was the closest to a compliment that the User was willing to give away at the moment. Wasn't quite deserving for a round of applause though, that would be reserved for a far more exciting accomplishment. Double checking his companion to make sure he wasn't quite dead on his feet just yet, the red eyed individual gave a nod before leading the way up the area and into what could be considered a small breathing spot for their location. It was an impromptu area but since they had managed to frighten away a lot of the shadows with that small example of skill, they should be relatively secure in the area. Settling down on some of the available slabs of concrete just lying around, Vice decided to go lecturer mode and test another aspect of the new User.
"That said, I wanna know if you found something out from your quick experience in the fight."
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 6, 2014 5:29:31 GMT -5
Kyle chuckled at Vice's off-hand comment. He wasn't one to go after praises but he assumed Vice had, if nothing else, more experience and so Kyle figured that if Vice appreciated how he worked, he was on a good path at least. He shouldered the axe and let Sitri vanish , then followed his potential ally further up and away from the Shadow hotbed. He was breathing somewhat heavily by now but didn't feel dangerously exhausted.
And that's probably what Vice meant.
Sitri was less than pleased. The human speaks mockery.
You're just bitchin', furball.
"Yeah, it gets bloody tiring," he said mirthfully. "It's not like we can order the Persona to go firing off skills nilly-willy. There's some kinda price. I feel like I might get a headache."
Phoebe had put in gaming terms for him when explaining the whole thing, but at the time Kyle hadn't precisely understood it until he really felt its practical application in reality. It kind of made sense in a way and Kyle had determined to practice in order to try and train himself to last out longer.
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
"That's true. Good to know you can tell that every time you summon your Persona, you give something up in return. So I guess a way to put it would be the customers in a bar being the times you have to call out your Persona and the supply you have in the bar to be the amount of times you can call out your Persona." Vice shrugged. "The detail difference there would be in what type of attack you use though. If you've noticed, every time a 'Spell' type is used there's a strain on your mind. With a 'Physical' type, there's a strain on your vitality or some such."
Stretching and rolling his wrists, Vice shook his head at the info dump he was giving the guy who just went through quite a few shadows. Then again, his breathing was returning to normal which meant that Kyle could at least last a bit if needed to be pushed. "So make sure to be careful which one you use and use them up appropriately." Looking towards the distance once more before looking back at Kyle's form, a question then popped in the biker's head.
"You look sturdy enough. Think you can handle a couple more rounds?"
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 7, 2014 20:21:03 GMT -5
"Huh. I see... that makes sense," Kyle said thoughtfully. "Yeah, Feebs put it sorta like that too. She just keeps using gaming terms like we're in some RPG, silly girl. I guess that's just her thing. As far as I understand, my Persona's kinda balanced out. Furball'll kick some ass physically but he can dole out magic too. I suppose there's more types than just lightnin' or whatever darkness blasty thing that Sitri uses."
I am not a furball.
He rubbed his nose on the back of his hand, sniffling a little absently. "I try not to think about it too hard. Or it starts not making a lot of sense when you try to reason through it. I'm just going with feeling, for the time being."
He paused. "Thanks, by the way, for the tips. I'll keep 'em in mind."
Then he smirked. "Sure thing. I ain't that tired and I've still got this baby," he said and bringing the axe off his shoulder, bounced the shaft against his hand playfully a couple of times.
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
"We're fighting off bunks of shadows that take up forms of monsters from story books while summoning folklore legends. I don't think logic or reasoning has a place in our business." Yeah, some Brevity should do the duo some good for the time being. The biker listened to whatever it was that Kyle had to say for the situation. Checking for any verbal and nonverbal cues to make sure that he could back up his words, Vice nodded and readied his revolver with a spin for good measure.
"That said, I'll be leaving you in charge of where we wanna go. If we're gonna rack up some experience then it's best you do most of the fighting. I'll provide back up when necessary but don't expect me to help you out in every situation." Nodding to himself when he had more or less readied everything, Vice once more turned to Kyle.
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 9, 2014 18:13:13 GMT -5
"You want me to take the lead?" Kyle said, trying not to sound very taken aback. "Heh, alright. I can manage."
He paused for a moment thoughtfully to survey their surroundings. He was raring for a fight now but he didn't want to come off as an over-eager little moron. "These things like closed and dark spaces, I think," he muttered. "They're like the freakin' mold from hell."
Bring foes before me and I will crush them.
Simmer down, furball. I'm the one calling the shots.
Impudent human! Sitri growled, but that was all he really did.
His eyes fell on a building he thought had been a bank in the past. It's facade was worn and cracked now, and the signs it might've had in the past had faded, as though something had sanded them down. It stood silent and dark in its imposing bulk, four floors of shattered glass and forlorn concrete edifice. It was odd how it appeared to have suffered a whole lot more, compared to the other buildings. There was an air about it that just seemed... appropriate.
"Let's give this one a try."
He started towards it cautiously enough to pay attention to his surroundings, but without the sort of shrinking look a man that was unduly afraid would have. He reached out and carefully pushed the door open with the handle of the axe. The security door was broken and when it swung open it actually fell inwards with a loud crash.
"Well, this'll be interesting in the least," he chuckled. "And hey, if we find no Shadows, we might find some spare change lying around, eh?"
Last Edit: Mar 11, 2014 7:56:21 GMT -5 by Kyle Shibata
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
The red eyed Chinese male simply allowed the Barista to go do his thing. He made sure to act as a sentry at least, observing everything that the other couldn't in his search for a place to go for. Thankfully, there weren't a lot more left in the open areas which meant that their choices of exploration was thinning down pretty fast. The trip continued on for a bit more until Kyle seemed to have finally chosen a building to explore.
They also apparently still had time for jokes. "Spare change huh? Might be able to get yourself a better axe and some coffee for me. God knows I could probably use one right now." Chuckling a bit along with it, Vice stood at the back as per the agreement and readied his revolver on reflex. Briefly the male wondered if he should rely on Arondight right now or if he should just go along with it and show no mercy on their enemies. Guess he'll just answer his own question depending on what Kyle's actions are gonna be.
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 11, 2014 8:07:52 GMT -5
Kyle walked into the deserted bank calmly, tempted to make a joke about holding it up. It really was in a pretty poor condition; any potted plants that had been around had all withered, plaster had fallen from the ceiling in big chunks and there was a persistent smell of mildew and rotten furniture that permeated the air.
And there were a few Shadows milling around. Kyle chuckled.
"Oh, you're a tall glass of water," he said to a Gigas type that turned around and eyeballed him before charging. "How come you haven't got little Shadow satellites around you?"
He dodged the Gigas' assault almost easily and summoned Sitri again. The leopard Persona roared and swiped at the Gigas with its paw, causing a bladed manifestation that went right through the Shadow. It was staggered and then shivered all over, hesitating. It looked almost petrified from fright. Kyle took full advantage and attacked it with his axe. The blade struck gold, right on the Gigas' head as it hunched over in fright and split it in two.
But the Shadow wasn't dead. It simply reeled backwards with an ugly scream and then drove its fist forward. Kyle dodged the initial attack but the tail end of the flash of light accompanying it got him and he was knocked backwards a little. The barista shook his head and frowned, then for the Gigas again, who was once more seemingly petrified. He swung his axe and caught the Shadow behind the knee. The strike was thundering and it forced the monster to its knee, where it met its end as Kyle swung the axe again and...
...off with its head.
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
The biker whistled, the tune being made a slight mix between amused and jaunty. All in all, it probably fit the atmosphere that beginning to settle on the duo. For all intents and purposes, Vice was at least having some kind of fun with this. The battle wasn't boring, that was pretty important for him, and that the axe wielder wasn't being a twat about how he fought enemies. An actual motor test, the same one that Vice had been hoping to see, was going and he wasn't about to just bust all of that effort down.
The Gigas, at the very least, had proven to be capable of retaliating and with that happening had allowed for more observation to be done in the name of getting stronger. The fact that it was tanky enough to last a few hits had also been a boon because for the most part, Kyle had been allowed to execute it with one hell of a combo. Sure there was a stutter when he had gotten hit but hey, every one has to start somewhere.
With the opponent now taken care of, the other smaller shadows had finally been roused enough to stray away from their mindless wandering to notice that they were hungry. This, in turn, had caused the three nearest shadows to Kyle attempt to attack him in order to feed. Lucky for Vice, the sheer difference in his and the shadows strength was noticeable enough for the others to not bother him which allowed him to observe in peace.
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 11, 2014 17:08:55 GMT -5
Kyle turned around to face the next wave of Shadows and smirked wryly. "Aww, what's this? Comin' for the small fry? Tough," he scoffed. Damn dude's probably so experienced the little shits can smell it on him.
You're being used as bait, Sitri snarled in a way that was downright sulky. Fuck if I care, Kyle responded. We'll just cut 'em down, furball.
The next who came for a serving were these weird, floating balls with wide, grinning mouths and huge tongues lolling out dumbly. Kyle wrinkled his nose at them; they looked ridiculous but then again, he'd noticed that was the case with all Shadows. They almost had a penchant for looking dumb. But that didn't make them any less deadly.
He simply summoned Sitri again but he hesitated for a brief moment. He was starting to get a noticeable headache; he couldn't keep up casting spells nilly-willy for very long and his body was starting to get sore too, which meant less room for physical attacks. He could dare to push himself just a wee bit more but he didn't want to risk just completely tuckering out.
"Zio!" he said and a bolt of lightning struck the nearest Shadow, which reeled backwards.
That momentary distraction was all he needed to rush forward and bring down his axe on the second Shadow while the first one was thrashing. He chopped the ugly thing cleanly in two, amazed that it had gone down so simply and swung around for the second. He jumped back to dodge a strange lunge from the Shadow; it had flailed its tongue like it was trying to lick him. He dry-heaved from the stench and just swung at the thing, catching it with the axe and ending its miserable existence with a powerful blow.
He shouldered his axe again, panting slightly.
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
Vice began to list off a couple of stats one could usually find in a game and ticked off a couple of marks for how well Kyle had performed in the series of battles. One couldn't just judge how strong a person was in a fight, maybe actual legends but Vice had yet to reach that kind of observational ability, and thus had required a series of fights with a break in between to get a better grasp of his abilities.
Needless to say, Vice wasn't disappointed from the results he'd manage to gather. The milling shadows, after seeing the display of power and the weakening presence of the axe wielder, had unfortunately decided to harass the guy either out of revenge or hunger. Choosing this time to save a useful ally, the biker casually walked forward and stood next to the tired User. It was enough to have the rest of the shadows stop moving and retreat from the room.
Man, were they weaker than the ones in the Terminal? The ones there just ignored Vice instead of running away.
"Take a break." Vice suggested as he tossed a fitting chocolate coated wafer bar he had with him to the other guy. "I'll keep watch and when you're good to go, we'll be heading back to the city."
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 12, 2014 14:32:35 GMT -5
Kyle quirked an eyebrow at Vice's mumbling-- was he ranking him? He chuckled.
"I feel like I just sat an exam or something," he joked.
He eyeballed their surroundings. The Shadows had seemed to get a little more aggressive the more tuckered out Kyle got but when Vice stepped up next to him, they backed off in a hurry. He caught the wafer bar sheepishly and smiled wryly at Vice. He kind of envied the guy now - well, more than 'kind of'. He seriously did. He had a long way to go before he'd hit that kind of peak. At least he'd made a point to them, somehow: He was no easy pickings, even now. He had to work on that endurance, though.
"Thanks a lot," he said. "I guess I shouldn't be too stupid confident this early. I'm probably gonna call it an evening, get some Zs and then come back out tomorrow. Gettin' into a few fights should help me get stronger, right?"
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld
Vice joked back. He wasn't really keeping it a secret from the other guy that there was some kind of test going on but it hardly mattered. Now that the room they were in wasn't exactly teeming with monsters and hazardous things that could possibly kill them in one go, hopefully anyway, the biker then decided to at least take a good look around. Dead plants, dead plants, some broken glass, and more dead plants. Man this bank must've really loved the whole greenery thing to have so many of them.
"Don't worry about it. Besides, make as many mistakes as you want now while it's not yet difficult. The earlier you know your weaknesses, the more time you'll have to cover them up." The red eyed male offered as he finally came upon one of those under the desk sort of things. It wasn't always like that but maybe he'd be able to snag a few purposely misplaced wads of cash for their efforts. A crack to the table there and tada, quite a couple of paperwork fell off from the insides of the counter and with it, a single roll of bills.
"Catch." A lob of the roll of cash. "Buy yourself a new jacket from the smithy. It'll help in the long run." Walking towards the exit this time and looking out the broken glass to check up on their route towards where they came from, the experienced user nodded to himself. "It's clear. We should be able to head back now with little to no problems. You ready?"
Post by Kyle Shibata on Mar 13, 2014 20:02:01 GMT -5
Kyle smirked tiredly. Yeah, of course he'd been tested. Felt quite good too.
"I've got a pretty good idea about what bites me in the ass," he sighed. "Wind seems to be the big thing and the way my angry furball chucks out darkness or whatever that black stuff is, Phoebe said she guesses it doesn't like... light-based stuff. She talks like such a nerdy gamer sometimes but it annoys me that she's right."
He wiped his forehead on the back of his hand. "Stamina seems to be my problem at the moment, but I guess that'll get better with workout."
He watched Vice crack open a desk behind the counters and his smirk widened. That's what he'd been thinking. Maybe he should consider going through a couple of banks in the area for some loose cash. he'd probably need it. He caught the money Vice tossed at him.
"A jacket, eh? Smithy... you're talking about Laharl's joint, right? Figures the old coot'd find a way to make a killing now," he laughed. "Not what I expected but makes sense. I'll see what I can find."
He shouldered the axe and followed Vice cautiously. "I'm ready as ever. And Vice?" he paused for a sec. "Thanks, man. You're solid. Let me know if you ever need someone to watch your back. I'll give you a number when we're back in the city."
"We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
François de la Rochefoucauld