Roleplay:Main Forum/Training Arena/Analeese vs James (Scales and Striker)



James: After hearing Analeese, he rises to his feet and walks around the edge of the lake. He doesn't feel like taking the risk of slipping on the ice, especially not in combat. "Indeed," he says. "Let the best win." He then draws his tactical shortsword, but makes no move to attack. He just walks along the edge of the lake, waiting.

Analeese: She cautiously watches James, as he cautiously steps around the edge of the frozen lake. "Ladies first?" Analeese replies with a mocking bow and steps backwards across the ice. The daughter of Nemesis figures it's probably best to stay out of range of the pretty little sword and knives attached to his outfit. She eventually stops about 30ft away from James, at the edge of the frozen lake. She draws her crossbow and loads her bolt before squeezing the trigger and aiming for the torso, the largest part of his body and where most of his vital organs were placed. It was time to see what armor lay beneath his skirts.

OOC: I thought we would be doing the fight in past tense, as you used it for your WB introduction. However I am willing to follow your lead and write in whichever tense is most comfortable c: -Scales.

James: His eyes widen as the bolt zooms towards him. Using his innate battle reflexes and inhuman battle speed (See Athena offensive powers) he almost dodges it completely, though it knicks his right thigh as he dives to the left. He mutters a few curses in pain and looks at the wound. "Just a scratch." he says to himslef. He glances at Ana just a moment so he can know where she is. He then rolls onto his feet and darts behind a snow mound. "She has the ranged advantage, I can't hit her from this far," he thinks to himself. With this in mind, he looks towards the top of the mound, this isn't the perfect spot either. If she were to suddenly step around it with a loaded crossbow, he'd be done for. He ponders this predicament for only a moment before coming up with an ingenious idea. He began to dig into the mound and cover himself in the snow. Hopefully, with his all why cloak and hood, she wouldn't be able to spot him fast enough. He lies there, completely submerged in the snow. Listening carefully for his adversary.

OOC: Sorry, I would like to fight in present tense. I wasn't thinking when I did the intro x_X

Analeese: She smirks in satisfaction as the crossbow bolt scratches across his right thigh. It isn't a direct hit but that's not the point. The daughter of Nemesis just wants to find out the kind of protection James is packing. Although he seems to have inhumanly fast reflexes and battle speed, the daughter of Nemesis knows that her own reflexes are just as quick. (see Nemesis powers.) She reloads another bolt and prepares to strike, just as the son of Athena runs off out of range, seemingly hiding behind a mound. "Shit." She mutters to herself and walks briskly up the snowy verge. She heads northeast to cut him off, taking the time to conserve her energies at this stage in the battle. At first Analeese is stumped and unable to locate him, as the footprints left in the deep snow indicate that he is somewhere in the area. (I assume if there's enough snow to dig into, he would inevitably leave his footprints in the snow >.< even if she can't outright see him.) Logically there's nowhere to hide, unless James has somehow camouflaged himself against the white snow. She keeps a 20ft distance from the snowy mound on top of the snowy verge and waits, hoping that he bleeds out or dies of hypothermia before he realises his trick only delays the inevitable. If he tries to charge towards her, the daughter of Nemesis is pretty confident that he can be shot before he gets into range, or taken down through use of her powers. Additionally James would have to dig himself back out of the mound, which would alert her to his presence and give her another second or two to pull the trigger and release the bolt which has already been loaded.

OOC: She doesn't quite know where he is. I would fire bolts into the mounds but she has limited ammo and it seems unfair to do so xD

James: He waits a minute or two, before he realizes if the longer he stays in the snow the slower his battle movements would be, even with his inhuman speed. If he just digs right out though, he runs the risk of getting shot, so he doesn't dig out the same way he went in. Instead, he digs further into the mound, coming out on the other side. He scans the side of the mound, his insticts must've been right. She was on the other side, probably waiting for him to come out into her sights. James thinks for a while, how could he get the battle to be closer in range? He partially undoes his battle cloak to make sure he didn't forget to put his steel thermal breast on underneath, which would've allowed him to stay in the mound for about 10 minutes before slowing his heartrate. He didn't. He redoes his cloak and thinks harder. ''It can't be impossible. How do I get closer?'' Then an idea came to him. He draws 2 throwing knives, one in each hand, and runs around the mound. As he clears it he sees Ana  was about 20ft. from the mound, with her crossbow pointed at it. He charges at her, trying to get within 10ft. so he can more accurately throw his knives.

OOC: Are there animals in the arenas?

OOC: Read the arena description, and Ana is on another side of the mound and standing pretty clear. I shall reply now.

Analeese:  Analeese smirks and watches, as James digs his way out of the mound. He seems to take his time getting out, which gives the daughter of vengeance time to take sight and aim, while the son of Athena fiddles with his cloak and generally procrastinates. She uses this time to take another step up the snowy verge. He charges. Whilst he has a lighter loadout than Analeese, his knives don't have the sheer range of a crossbow. This plays well into her plan, to wear him down from afar. It doesn't matter how well one is acquianted with a sword, if they couldn't get in range to use it. Her position also offers her the advantage of height, and the verge itself presents a minor obstacle to slow him down. "I thought Athena kids were supposed to be smart." She smirks and raises the crossbow, aiming for around his groin. She assumes that there will be a gap somewhere between a cuirass and gauntlets, if that's what he's wearing beneath his fancy battle dress. Additionally if he tried to avoid it, there was a chance the weapon could pierce his arms or his torso, which would serve to injure him for the remainder of the match. As soon as James is 15ft away from her, the daughter of Nemesis fires the crossbow. Without looking to see if the bolt has hit, she kicks one of the snow drifts upwards for his face, and turns tail down the mountain to find some cover before he can retaliate. The two are on a mountaintop which levels down into a local valley. She reattaches the crossbow to her back, as she makes the decision to conserve her ammunition for later and free up her hands for when James decides to reappear. The path towards the bottom of the mountain consists of loose rubble and detritus from the nearby rocks. The ice makes the surfaces even deadlier. With her innate balance and climbing skills, Analeese scampers down the pile and finds a rocky outcrop, which reaches out towards another mountain. Below she can see a sea filled with ice which is surrounded by rugged coastline. James: He hates to have to charger her head on, but there wasn't any other way to get closer to her. He watches her aim while he charges. C'mon, c'mon! He tries to calculate when she'll pull the trigger. (Athena power.) At about 15 feet away her dives straight down to offset her aim. It almost works. The bolt rakes across his left shoulder, making a decently sized gash. "Damn crossbow!" He wasn't prepared for her to bring something so ranged. He gets back to his feet and runs to the top of the mountain. From there he sees Ana at the base, just making it to the ice. Perfect. He thinks to himself. The height advantage increased his throwing range immensely. James used the knives at hand and, with his good arm, threw it at her back in hopes of either injuring her or breaking her crossbow. With his bad arm he just threw in her general direction, but further ahead of her as to break the ice in front of her.

Analeese: Instinctively she hunches her body over slightly to gain a lower centre of gravity, and to present a smaller target. The daughter of Nemesis looks upwards where a thin wire with a carabiner connects from the nearest mountain and leads down a zipline towards the sea of ice below. It may have been left by mountaineers. Analeese shrugs. An escape route is an escape route. It doesn't matter who put it there. As these thoughts run through her head, James approaches and throws a couple of knives at her with both hands. (unless James is ambidextrous, this would reduce the accuracy of his throws) The knife thrown from his bad arm merely hits the icy ground with its hilt, failing to crack the ice or make much of an impact at all. The second knife slides across the side of her torso. Thankfully her breastplate absorbs much of the impact of the attack. However she gains a small graze where the blade has sliced across the side of her ribs. It's little more than a flesh wound but it hurts nevertheless. "Damn you." She throws a pair of throwing knives, one after the other in quick succession to form a distraction. The attack is empowered by virtue of her wound to do extra damage if it hits. The daughter of vengeance aims for his groin area, either hoping to disable his legs or cause enough pain to slow him down. She swiftly clips the caribena to her belt, tying a knot around it with her whip to provide some extra security and kicks herself off the rocky outcrop with her feet. It sends her flying down, straight towards the sea of ice. The drop is about 50ft, and the wire is attached to a coastal wall near the bottom of the valley. As Nemesis kids are naturally great climbers and have innate reflexes, Analeese is able to do this with relative speed. By the time James dodges the knives and reaches the rocky outcrop she should be at the bottom of the mountain, or at least far enough that she is out of his range.

OOC: The zipline seemed like a fun way of getting down for both of us c: I can edit if it seems implausible.