Baby Sitting II [Tristan/Luka]

[Vice Ysal]

Again, here he was, on the same hill he had chosen as his 'spot' before venturing out further into the wilderness of the outskirts. It was the same slab of concrete that had acted as his faithful stool, bed, and generally a resting area for whenever he had gotten weary. For some reason or another, he never had to contend with a shadow in the vicinity. There were different theories as to how that happened exactly but majority of them didn't bear any merit in mentioning. The same hill he had stayed on was littered with shattered steel, broken pipes all lodged to the ground, and could probably have been some kind of manufacturing company for whatever the fuck it was that needed so many pipes to begin with.

Vice took in a small breath, eyes slightly glazed as memories and disappoint decided to slightly surface above. It only lasted for a moment however and was quickly taken care of. Honestly, for what it was worth, he was probably just trying to make sure it didn't happen again. Team work was important right? And the severe lack of it was probably the reason why majority of the users were failing in one thing or another. Should their improvised and patchwork ability to put up a good team fail during the Full Moon…Vice would honestly rather avoid thinking about it.

So here he was, having called out to whoever had been on his randomised list. Work together, fight together, win together. That was today's objective and he was pretty hell bent on achieving that.

[Luka Kurokawa]

Luka was out in the outer circle again, dressed in her usual attire for hunting shadows. This naturally consisted of a light jacket, blue scarf, a skirt, thigh highs, and a pair of running shoes. Though, her reasoning for coming here was much different than her usual reasons. She had gotten a message from someone to come meet up and practice teamwork for the next big shadow that might appear. The idea sounded great to Luka, who had to deal with the clean-up for the last one, which was not fun at all. If they could bring out some teamwork between the users, perhaps the next fight would go more smoothly?

As Luka made her way to the indicated location, she spotted someone resting on a small mound. He was certainly familiar as well. Walking towards him, she smiled. Nice to see you again. This was the guy that fought alongside her in the past two full moon fights as well as that fight in the chasm recently. I don't believe we formally introduced ourselves, though. My name is Luka. There was another reason why Luka made an effort to come out here. She was still on a journey to become more social. Perhaps something like this would lead to her becoming a more outgoing individual?

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan had received an odd message earlier in the day. Though the basic premise was appealing- slaying shadows- dealing with others just wasn't in him. Still, building teamwork may just save him, and he liked that idea. He got to kill more shadows that way.

So he made his way to a hill, adorned with an oddly familiar person and a stranger. He knew he was in for a long night when he saw them. Vice, the biker who had helped him gain more understanding of shadows and the best ways to kill them. Great. I'm going to die. Still, with a sigh he approached the pair. "Vice. Imagine meeting you here. And you, miss, I don't know. So which of you sent me the message?"

Human. Be nicer, these are your allies for the night.

Shut up, Ifreet. I'm here to strengthen myself, and that's all. However, Tristan acknowledged that the Persona had a point. So he introduced himself to the girl. "My name's Tristan, by the way. You are?"

[Vice Ysal]

It didn't take long for someone else to appear, the sounds of the foot steps reaching his ears causing the biker to turn his head to find the source of it. At the sight of her, the young man gave off a small friendly smile and an complimentary wave to go with it to welcome the girl's presence. Patting the remaining space on his concrete block, the young man had basically offered the girl a seat if she wanted one.

"You as well, and it's nice to meet you Luka." The biker noted with a nod of his head. "For how long we've known each other, it's sorta amusing on how we don't even know each other's names. I'm Vice." A pleasantry here and there and it seems that the latest addition to the group had arrived. It didn't take the chinese male long to know that there was something wrong with the kid and that, for some reason, had more or less made him want to punch Tristan in the face.

Shrugging the feeling off, Vice just gave a curt nod towards the other male in the vicinity before standing up to let the two go ahead and do their pleasantries. Introductions and all that before everything else. "We're all pretty experienced with this kind of business, so I guess I'll go skip the inspirational speech part." An easy smile on his face to accompany his casual stance. "We know that the Full Moon is nearing, and with it another one of those demented abominations. Today's goal shouldn't be too difficult and if we can at least get something done, then it'll be better for all of us in the long run. The goal? Teamwork. A patch work of on the fly tactics isn't bad but it isn't always going to cut it for us either." Crossing his arms and falling back into his default exploration stance, Vice took another good look at the two before continuing.

"That said, we should do some introductions first before exploring the place out there. Your likes, dislikes, aspirations are good to start with. Continuing on with your persona, abilities, strengths and weaknesses would be better. After that, then we can start." Looking over at Luka, the biker then gave her the go ahead to go and start the round robin introduction.

[Luka Kurokawa]

The man introduced himself as Vice. Luka giggled slightly at the mention of just how long it had taken for the two to truly get to know each other a bit. She took the seat that was offered to her before noticing that they had other company as well. Nice to meet you as well. I'm Luka. She was already off to a good start, meeting two new people from this meeting.

Vice started off by giving the true purpose of this meeting. Truthfully, the idea had its points that made something like this worthwhile. Teamwork would likely be the key factor in winning these upcoming battles. But before they could begin that, Vice suggested introductions for everyone. And of course, he decided that Luka should start it off. Ah. Alright then. . . She began to ponder for a moment. Well, I enjoy videos games, singing, dancing, and reading. I-I can't really think of anything I dislike right now, but I aspire to save the city. the girl nodded as she said that. Truly, the girl hadn't made any aspirations prior to the incident. Saving the city was the first one that she had made. As for my persona, Hel, I specialize in offensive attacks. Specifically dark attacks. Naturally, dark attacks do not affect me, however I am weak to light attacks.

For her to say that she "specialized in dark offensive attacks was an understatement. She had her actual dark attack, a skill that charged up offensive attacks, a skill that rendered dark resistance useless, and amplifiers to her dark attacks. At that point, she was beginning to wonder just when her ice attacks would grow in strength if they ever would. I think that sums it up for me. And with that, the girl's introduction was over, leaving it up to the next person in the line.

[Tristan Carter]

With a slight nod as Luka introduced herself, Tristan was preparing what he said. Still, he had no idea when she finished up. Working on teamwork... My main goal... What I like... I can respect the reasoning behind this, but still. Are my personal preferences needed? Even so, he sighed, then looked dead ahead. "Like I said earlier, my name's Tristan. My interests are video games, reading, writing, and music. My aspiration?"

He gave a thought to Ifreet, then looked at the ground. "I aspire to burn the shadows to a crisp. i intend to make them pay for all the pain and suffering they've caused. My Persona is Ifreet, who also specializes in offense." He looked up, at the two whom would be accompanied by him.

"I do fire attacks, but also light and dark. However, I can only hit one enemy at a time with my spells. My only multi-enemy attacks are a physical attack and a spell called Megido." Tristan looked out in the distance, for a reason he didn't even understand. "Im weak to ice and piercing, but fire and slash attacks don't faze me anymore." He then turned to Vice, waiting to hear how he would introduce himself.

[Vice Ysal]

"Huh. Guess we've got a Messiah and an Avenger on the team."

Vice commented, an easy going but rather malignant smile on his face. If the latter thought he could go off and try to be anything remotely like a certain black haired fire breathing fictional character based on ninjas, the biker was pretty sure that he was going to be beating someone up to get said imitation back on the right track. Gotta get your priorities straight after all.

"Anyway, guess it's my turn. I'm Lazarus Ysal but I'd prefer it if you guys call me by Vice still. I enjoy fighting, cooking, and generally anything related to making sure I don't fuck up. It's rather general but I do have quite a tendency to dislike inordinate twits who can't back their choices and blame others for their misgivings. Relating that to my goal? Nothing long term, but I guess making sure the newer users don't start getting ahead of themselves to just run off and die. Regarding my persona, well, you guys can refer to him as Arondight. He's also rather handy with Slash and Dark attacks. That said, I'm sure you guys can tell what he's resistant and weak to."

The biker nodded as he crossed his arms, seemingly satisfied with how things have at least been running for the time being. Double checking his equipment to ensure that they wouldn't be breaking after taking a few hits from those shadows. "That said, I'm rather amused that all of us specialise in offence…which is rather difficult to work with all things considered. So speak up now if you've got any support type skills because that's pretty much indispensable in any party formation." Another glance towards the grand horizon of the shadow lands and the biker had pretty much set up a general route for the exercise.

"By the way, Luka?" Vice called out. "Seeing as you've had more exposure than me with these things, I'll be assigning the Leader spot to you. I'll be counting on you to make sure we don't lose our way, alright?"

[Luka Kurokawa]

Avenger and Messiah? Which one am I? After listening to the other two's introductions, Vice seemed to categorize the two of them as such. Only, Luka wasn't quite sure which one she was being referred as. But from the sounds of it, these other two had arguably similar goals in mind.

Vice also seemed to point out something that Luka had begun to notice. All three of them were damage focused. They didn't really have anyone who could heal the group. Luka had never really run into a situation like this before considering every group fight she had been in, there was a healer. Most of the time, that ended up being Akira. So just how would they combat this situation? Luckily, Luka had already begun to think of a few ideas for such a situation. Thankfully she did, too. Just as she was thinking over it, Vice had proposed that she lead the group's training.

She blinked for a moment. Her leading? It was true that she could likely go anywhere she wanted with little worry, but leading was something new to her. She had almost said something to pass the opportunity back to Vice, but the girl realized how important of an opportunity this was. Alright. I think I know how we'll be going about this. Getting up from her spot, the girl began to walk out a bit to look over the surroundings a bit. There were a few places that they could explore. In the end she decided on the hospital for their training grounds. Let's go. Taking the lead, Luka made her way to the hospital where the three of them could train up a bit.

Since we don't have a support, we'll need to minimize damage as much as possible. In a way, I suppose we can consider this a good exercise for a situation when healing becomes impossible. Luka sincerely hoped that a situation like that wouldn't arise any time soon, but it was good to always be prepared. Now, I'm not exactly sure how much the two of you can handle, but I think we should be fine if we head to the top of the hospital. The shadows up there seem to be rather formidable. As they entered the building, a few shadows began lurking towards them. They were extremely weak ones. Something that one could find in the terminal of all places. Without a word, the girl willed her persona into view before order an ice attack to destroy them all instantly. Up the stairs, we'll find something worth fighting. And thus, the girl led them up to one of the higher floors.

Looking around a bit, Luka walked out onto the floor before scanning the area. This floor should work fine. She could sense some rather powerful shadows nearby. Just stay together and we should be fine. As she said that, she spotted a shadow off to the side. One of those large wrestler ones. Again, her persona appeared before her, sending a dark attack at the creature. It was a powerful blow that managed to knock the thing off its feet. Normally, that may have been the end, but looking around once more, Luka noticed that the group was slowly being surrounded by more shadows. Well, here's our training opportunity. Get ready. On that note the girl used Mind Charge before picking out a few targets for her next attack.

[Tristan Carter]

Messiah and Avenger. Honestly?

With a sigh, It didn't take long for Tristan to figure the two terms out. The Luka girl, the one who wanted to save the city, was the Messiah. That left him as the Avenger. He was perfectly fine with the title, but he knew that Vice was mocking him. That didn't sit well with Tristan, but he knew that it wouldn't do well to let feelings get in the way. After all, mindless killing doesn't involve emotion besides hate. At least, Tristan didn't see any involvement.

He followed the appointed leader into the hospital. His Dia spell might come in handy, but he doubted it would do much good compared to the attacks of stronger enemies. So, he decided that following the training exercise would be best. Until he could somehow strengthen his spell, he wasn't going to be of much use if he couldn't prevent attacks. With that in mind, Tristan watched as the girl blasted away at smaller shadows before climbing the stairs. He followed the girl, wondering at how much weaker he must be than her. After all, he knew that Vice was stronger than him. Yet Vice had still handed the reins over to Luka. She must be a powerful human then, Tristan. Keep an eye on her, for she may become a valuable ally.

Shut up, Ifreet.

When they reached the desired floor, the girl had attacked a wrestler shadow and sent it flying. While this had been an impressive feat, Tristan noticed that it had attracted the attention of other shadows. This may be a problem. He then noticed that the girl took on a meditative look. Unsure of what was going on, Tristan decided to attack the nearest shadow. It was a stonework giant, armed with a sword and scales. Figuring that a physical attack would be practically useless, Tristan  let loose his strongest attack. Even though it was boosted by the trinket, the burst of fire that hit the giant was far weaker than Luka's dark attack. This just served to irritate Tristan, who saw it as a mockery of his skills.

"Fine. Fire isn't that good? Let's try something else! Ifreet!" Summoning the djinn of fire, Tristan showed the giant the light. "Hamaon!" He then watched as the giant was harmed by it, more than the fire. Yet it still stood, serving as a further mockery. "Hamaon again!" The giant was further bathed in light, yet it still didn't fall. Tristan was getting more than irritated now.

[Vice Ysal]

Deciding to hang back for the time being and reviewing what he knew of the dreaded hospital, barring a few bad memories of course, Vice just went with the group's pacing and had taken the spot at the back to act as the temporary field monitor. His eyes would continuously scan the areas that the group passed through and having reached the hospital, narrowed down his awareness to try and sense any of the shadows that were currently present in the vicinity. Not like he needed to anyway, they did just sort of died with an easy ice spell from the Dark Specialist.

Soon enough, the group had ascended the stair case and bypassed a few of the floors that carried little to no worth in terms of experience. Given enough time, the trio had finally reached the location that their currently appointed leader had chosen for the group exercise. With Luka having already decided to call aggro on her on the first shadow that had decided to cross their path, the biker shrugged his shoulders and began to call Arondight to the forefront of his mind as the shadows from all around had begun to converge in on their positioning. With the other two having already picked out their targets for the time being, Vice was just about to summon his own persona to take down a couple of shadows himself when he heard Tristan swearing already. Foregoing the chance to wipe off a couple of shadows from the face of the earth in favour of assisting the Fire-based User, the biker sent out a blast of darkness that had engulfed the thing's left side. It was enough to push the enemy back before causing it stagger in place.

"Cool your head, kid." Vice called out as he finally took his own position for the group's formation with said formation looking to be a rather loose triangle that was slowly but surely being surrounded by more and more shadows. His own series of enemies seemed to be more of the airborne type and much as he wanted to explore what they had in store for him, he couldn't afford such a luxury. The first two waves of swords that he had ordered the fallen king to commence had ripped some of the shadows apart why flinching some of the sturdier ones, and any of the stragglers were picked off by bullets from his revolver. More and more shadows had begun to push forward and the amount of distance between the trio and the opponents was slightly decreasing for every moment that passed.

[Luka Kurokawa]

It didn't take Luka long to charge up her dark attack, but as she did the other two guys seemed to jump into the fray without a moment of hesitation. Judging by the enemies' numbers, they wouldn't have too much of an issue. In fact, Luka sincerely doubted that she would be getting hit unless a lucky projectile managed to hit her. Naturally, such a thing was starting to become a reality.

A flurry of needle-like objects were sent at her, to which she simply began to run off to the side in order to avoid. Once she was free from having to run around, she decided to finally let the attack out. Hel took position above her as she began to form a large mass of dark energy. Rather than focusing on the weakened enemy that she had previously attacked, she targeted one of the unharmed enemies. With her sights set, she unleashed the charged up attack which slowly made its way over towards the enemies. The large mass collided with a few of them due to its sheer size, seeming to obliterate them in their entirety. Just a few more. Looking over the remaining shadows, Luka willed an ice attack at all of them. She wouldn't be able to kill them all with that, but she could at least weaken them considerably while the other two continued their assault as well.

[Tristan Carter]

Again, it was made apparent how weak Tristan was. This infuriated him, seeing as of how he couldn't even handle one enemy without assistance. With a look of pure hatred on his face, he summoned Ifreet again.

Listen to the other human. You need to calm yourself. You'll be of no use if you let your anger hinder you.

For the first time, Tristan considered listening to the djinn. Sadly, that didn't last long. "Ifreet, I'll be of no use if I can't be trusted to hold my own, either. Back me on this, okay?" On that note, Tristan directed another burst of fire at the giant, causing it to dissipate. Then he took note of the other enemies on his side. He had a knight and some sort of jester-looking thing. He was unsure of what to make of the second one until it sent a powerful fire attack in his direction. Tristan felt nothing, and looked to the shadow.

"You use magic? Should be interesting later, but allow me to take care of the knight first." He then turned to the knight and sent a burst of light at it, hitting its weakness. As long as it doesn't shoot anything, I'll be fine. Besides, these guys main slash attacks anyway. Following this train of thought, Tristan was unprepared when he was smashed with a warhammer. Ow doesn't cover that, he told himself as he prepared another light spell.

[Vice Ysal]

The shadows were still moving in, taking every inch as if they owned it and no quarter was being given to the users, advancing more and more until the distance between the two factions had grown considerably uncomfortable. Holding back still and aiming for precision was going to become detrimental if this kept up and though there were more ways to conserve energy, having these shadows break through their defences would just amount to more bodily harm than needed. Recovering his stamina was a lot easier than trying to heal wounds after all, and it wasn't like any of them had any worth while healing spells to offer to the group's continued survival.

So calling forth for his persona, the winged demon raised its hands into the air before gathering a massive amount of purple energy. An attack from one of the shadows, a snake of lightning, flew forth and though Vice could have easily dodged it, the attack may destroy the concentration of one of his other teammates. An attack from behind usually dealt more damage than from the front and the biker knew he was sturdy enough to take the damn thing on without too much trouble. Tanking out the blast of electricity, Vice then pushed the malevolent ball of energy forward and proceeded to disintegrate some of the weaker shadows while the stronger ones had to actively try and push it back. The attack had ended and the shadows still remained, albeit heavily damaged. Without pause, Vice once more repeated the attack and had successfully obliterated the first wave of shadows on his side. With the other enemies still a bit off, the young man took a glance back to see if any of his teammates needed any form of help to deal with their own group.

[Luka Kurokawa]

Luka charged up once more as a few more shadows neared. She remained calm as this happened, knowing that they wouldn't reach her in time. They would be down by then. And just as she believed, when she finished charging up her attack, the girl released a ray of frost that hit the remaining shadows that she was faced with. They had all been frozen before crumbling and dissolving into nothing. Then, with a sigh, the girl turned to look over the situation of the other two.

Tristan seemed to still be dealing with a shadow off to the side. With a tiny bit of focus, the girl willed a dark attack in the direction of the sufficiently weakened shadow and finished it off. That doesn't count as "KS-ing" right? The girl blinked while tilting her head to the side. In any case, I think we cleared that wave with little to no difficulty. Would you guys like to try something a bit harder, or would you just like to continue on this floor a bit? It was an honest question. The girl didn't want to have the group bite off more than they could chew while still giving them a sufficient experience.

[Tristan Carter]

Tristan stared in disbelief as the shadow was hit with a dark attack then dissipated. With jaw open, he turned to the caster of the spell; he wasn't sure if he should thank the girl or not. Then she asked about "KS-ing," and he realized that she had been just trying to help. He took a breath, then shot her a grateful smile.

Luka then asked if he would like to go further or stay here. That provoked a little thought on his part before he could come up with a possible answer. "Personally, I can tell that I'm nowhere near as strong as you. Either of you. With that in mind, I also don't want to hinder you guys. Vice has seen my capabilities before, so if he feels that i can go on I'll go on."