Augustine's opening act was to start with a simple pirouette while the illusionary swans launched a wave of sky blue sphere bullets at Augustine's current targets: Cirno, Kasen and Yuyuko. While Kasen and Yuyuko floated away, Cirno panicked and ran forward to dodge the storm head on. Augustine closed her eyes and shook her head as she watched the stupid fairy frantically weave through the storm of bullets.
"Little cat." Augustine turned towards Chen, still sitting on the stoop. "You best head inside." Chen nodded and turned tail inside of the former shrine. "I'll deal with the three inside of the shrine once I finish up here." She turned her attention back to the fight, noticing the three had grouped up. "Hmm." Augustine hummed out loud before thinking in her head: "I will need to deal with the faux hermit first. She doesn't use bullets as much as the other two. And then the ghost princess; she's got a strong bullet-based game but she's still dangerous. The ice fairy will be easy, provided that I don't ignore her too much."
"What's our plan?" Cirno asked in the huddle.
"There's three of us and one of her, and we aren't restricted to fighting her one-on-one." Kasen summarized. "But if what she says is true, that she can stop our projectiles in midflight, we just need to use Ran's strategy from the last fight. She can't stop a bullet if she doesn't see it coming. Yuyuko." Yuyuko nodded before Kasen continued. "Try to get close to her as much as possible without making yourself a target. I'll try to do the same and wail on her. And Cirno?"
"I try to get around behind her, right?" Cirno asked.
"No." Kasen clicked her tongue. "It will be better if you would keep your distance and fire away at her to keep her distracted."
"Gotcha!" Cirno chirped as she broke off from the group and launched a barrage of icicles at Augustine. The ballerina sighed before bounding up and landing perfectly on a icicle. She didn't stop on just one, but she continued to leap onto each bullet that came to her, getting closer to the still-firing Cirno. The fairy tried to drown the ballerina with a shotgun blast of frost, but Augustine delivered a swift kick straight to Cirno's face. Augustine did a quick bow as she stood over the downed Cirno.
"So much for the distraction." Yuyuko sighed. "We need a better plan if she can cover any gap we put between her…and she can also escape if we get too close."
"Leave it to me." Kasen puffed out as she pounded a fist into a palm. "Get Cirno out of the way while I'll try to end this myself." Yuyuko flew over to where Cirno laid, picked her up, and got out of the way of a blue laser that drilled through the ground.
"Et quitter la fée et la princesse." Augustine sighed as she watched Yuyuko carry Cirno behind the approaching Kasen. "Et entrez le démon dans le déni." Augustine summoned more swans to try to drown out Kasen and get around her to hit the retreating Yuyuko. Kasen took a sharp intake of breath right before pushing her bandage hand forward. A powerful blast of air with the power of a cannon blew the bullets away. Yuyuko laid Cirno down a good distance away before looking back and seeing Kasen square off with Augustine.
"If assume that my ability to negate projectiles is the only thing I'm good at…" Augustine spread her legs apart. "…then you are going to lose."
"Then don't assume my bandaged arm is a sign of injury." Kasen tapped on said arm.
"Let us drop the assumptions and fight on even lines." Augustine did a quick bow before doing a quick spinning kick right at Kasen. The monk blocked it with one arm and blocking the secondary kick with the other arm. Kasen jumped back before Augustine stuck her arm forward with her hand flat like a spear. Augustine kept going with more spinning kicks and spear-hand attacks, completely drowning Kasen out in a barrage of attacks.
Tried of being on the defensive, Kasen stepped around to the right side of Augustine and backhanded Augustine in the face. The ballerina spun around like a top and went away from Kasen, heading towards Yuyuko and Cirno. Yuyuko responded by unleashing a wave of butterfly bullets. Augustine stopped spinning to put her hand forward and the butterflies stopped in mid-flight. She proceeded to push past the bullets like people in a crowd, getting closer to Yuyuko.
"You have a unusual idea of balance." Yuyuko hid a trembling mouth behind a sleeved hand. "Does you master hire people who come up with a unusual term to describe their powers? The weight of gravity for transforming fate, and balance for negatation?"
"I create my own sense of balance." Augustine stated as she floated over to Yuyuko. Nonchalantly, she shoved a hand behind her to stall Kasen by freezing her in place. "If I don't think something is balanced, I fix it." She held up her free hand to keep Yuyuko quiet. "And no, I still can't balance any of those things you asked last time."
"I see." Yuyuko stood straight. "You hate crooked things. Your bullets don't bend or bounce, they always travel in straight lines." Augustine nodded. "But still, that does mean you are vulnerable to the sides." Augustine took a second before nodding in response. "But then again, you do incorporate a lot of spinning…so trying to hit you from a side would be difficult."
"I don't try to be a easy target." Augustine rolled her neck.
"That's dependent on your skill." Yuyuko coughed as she unleashed a giant wave of bullets all around her, rising up like a whirlwind. Augustine flew back and made two swans to fire straight forward at Yuyuko. Yuyuko flew up and continued to unleash bullet after bullet in a attempt to get Augustine. The ballerina just stopped each bullet and jumped on each one to reach Yuyuko. Unlike how Cirno stood still, Yuyuko stopped firing and moved away from Augustine's kick. After allowing Augustine to do a few more extra kicks, Yuyuko unleashed more bullets, going in at different angles to catch Augustine off guard. But the ballerina didn't miss a step and froze the bullets again before approaching.
All the while Kasen just watched. She couldn't do anything other than move her eyes around in their sockets. Kinda made watching the fight a bit hard whenever the two combatants darted out of her sight. But hey! At least she got a front row seat to witness Cirno squirm on the ground with her hands on her sore face. So glad all those training sessions were successful. Looks like the next thing Kasen will teach will be how to catch a fly with chopsticks! Sounds like Cirno is getting that black belt!
Kasen figured that she was getting a bit nutty from being frozen in place. Like Cirno could actually use chopsticks.
Yuyuko quickly got tired of this whole fire-freeze-dodge routine. But it seemed Augustine didn't mind the repetition. Probably came from the fact she, in her previous life, practiced and performed the same dances every day. Yuyuko decided to break the loop by thrusting herself forward with a butterfly-bullet infused hand and slapping right at Augustine. The attack…connected! Yuyuko was off-put by that.
"Balance Sign: Payment For Services Owed." Augustine stated right before a ring of blue lasers shot out from her body and struck Yuyuko in the chest. The ghost girl plummeted to the ground and bounced off before landing on her face, her cap falling off. Augustine killed the spell card and landed right at Yuyuko's feet before bowing silently.
"I was planning on dealing with you first." Augustine turned towards the still-frozen Kasen. A snap of her fingers and Kasen dropped to the ground with complete control over her limbs again. She quickly got right back onto her feet and ran up to Augustine with a fist raised. Augustine turned around with a scary look in her face, scary enough to make Kasen quickly halt in her tracks. "But I got distracted." Augustine laid a finger on her lips. "This could be a problem."
"I'm glad we agree on something." Kasen grunted as she cracked her knuckles.
Cirno stirred. Her face still burned slightly from the kick but she was finally starting to get back up. One of the first things she noticed right away is that Kasen is squaring off against the ballerina. As Cirno rose a bit more to get back to her feet, she noticed that Yuyuko also laid on the ground, withering in great pain. Something in Cirno snapped and got her to jump up to her feet.
"Hey ballerina!" Cirno shouted, managing to interrupt both Augustine and Kasen. "I'm not done with you yet!"
"Ah, you recovered." Augustine coughed. "Perhaps it's time for you to join the rest in inside."
"Oh no, I'm going to join this fight! And I'm going to land the final blow!" Cirno cracked her knuckles. "And now it's personal!"
"Two ands." Augustine commented to herself. "Must be the smart one." She cleared her throat before asking: "And why is it personal? Because I hit you in the face?"
"No!" Cirno bellowed before pointing over to Yuyuko. "It's because you hurt my future wife!"
"A fairy and a powerful princess of the netherworld." Augustine once more commented to herself. "Sounds like a trashy romance novel written by some generic male writer." She shrugged. "Come on then." She took a quick bow. "I'll take on all of you at once."
"Let's fight together this time!" Cirno chirped as she zipped over to be next to Kasen.
Kasen sighed. No way to avoid teaming up with Cirno now. She spread her legs and arms out into a fighting pose. Augustine looked straight at her opponents with a simple stare before summoning a quartet of swans. Kasen and Cirno took a second of staring down their enemy before they launched themselves into battle.