And the second Karin fight is here! On the 16th will be the third anniversary, so here's looking forward to it! If you have any questions you want quickly answered, or just want to talk to other people who know the story and see some lore I rant about and have written down, please check the discord, it could use some more people! CBpcmAV
As David dodged to the side, Eleonore completed her spell, bringing the humidity in the air to the shape of a tentacle and directing it towards Karin, who narrowed her eyes, raising her hand and crossing her fingers to Shield herself from the spell, though as she swiped through the end and jumped aside, the brief spill of water reconnecting to the rest as it floated in the air, while David moved to stand in front of the blonde, ready to protect her from any counterattack as she focused on casting.
As planned, Yeshua stayed out of the fighting, though he was standing and his legs tensed, ready to leap into action if he needed to quickly bolt to someone for healing. So far, this strategy of using David to distract the woman had worked, and as he'd done little but run around and avoid getting struck by Karin's powerful Fist, Gandalfr was holding steady.
Eleonore, on the other hand, was starting to feel the effects of willpower consumption, though she had only just broken a sweat, keeping in roughly the same place for the half hour they'd been using this tactic. It was a stalemate for now, but it was certainly better than having one person both attack and defend.
The Duchess moved back a few paces, eyes scanning the arena to register her foes' current position and the movement of the water tentacle. She was well aware that Eleonore had included the peorð rune, so while it looked like normal water, she couldn't risk disengaging Shield in order to actually strike it with some other Wellspring spell. With David keeping Derf at the ready, she also couldn't use its absorption to negate Eleonore's magic without first handling the annoying Water Dome surrounding the boy, and when he was only moving to guide her steps, never getting too close, she didn't have the leverage to force him into the path of the Water Snake.
It wasn't a plan that could stop her when she used elemental magic, but against the current her who was only using attacking and defensive Wellspring, she couldn't help but give a nod of approval, keeping her fingers crossed as she stood at the ready in case the tentacle came for another pass. "Playing on each other's strengths, and keeping your weakest away from danger. That's something any competent commander will know to do, but to improve this much after only a week is impressive. Still, you have too many idle moments. Giving yourselves time to think will also allow your enemy to prepare, and when you don't know the extent of their abilities, you should focus on always doing something to distract them. There are too few of you that can actually fight, it's too simple for me to simply watch both of you."
"You're right, we don't know what you're planning on doing." David said, speaking loudly over the sloshing from the current in the Water Snake. "In that week, all we really figured out was to wait for you to make a move first."
She hummed, rolling her eyes to gaze at Eleonore, who stood still, eyes narrowed as she concentrated on the movement of her wand to move the snake for another pass, which the woman dodged again, steadily moving around to her left as David shuffled his feet to remain between her and the caster. "I heard you frequently talking about this being Eleonore's strategy, but she isn't the type to stay at the back and let a vanguard act for her. Was this partly due to your influence?"
David grinned, shifting his grip so that Derf was pointed closer to parallel with the ground, the sword's blade coated in the moving water Casper generated. "I'd say that it's a standard game mechanic, but I can't claim credit for it. You underestimate Eleonore, that's all there is to it."
Eleonore's face flushed, her wand dipping briefly at the statement. "This...It's the only thing I could think of, since you kept insisting that we not focus on actually winning. What else am I supposed to do if you tell me you want a stalema-"
The split second her wand had shifted had caused the Water Snake to momentarily slosh in the air, its form losing definition just long enough for Karin to rush forward, and David's eyes widened as he was blown sideways by a burst of wind carving a path in the ground behind the woman. He shouted in pain as he landed hard on his shoulder, the Water Dome swirling around him in a delayed effort to cushion his fall as he just barely managed to keep his grip on Derf, who shouted to him in concern, though he wasn't paying attention in the haze of the aching in his already scarred shoulder.
Karin had said no runes, no incantation, but the sound of the blast of wind was deafening as it propelled her forward, and Eleonore could do little but stare like a deer in headlights as her mother clenched her hand into a fist, though rather than punching, she used the momentum of her Windwalker spell to deliver a kick upwards, causing her daughter to shout in pain and bring her hands between her legs, sent flying in the air and unable to respond as the pain temporarily paralyzed her.
The Water Snake immediately lost its cohesion as its caster lost control, raining down onto the trench carved out by the attack as Karin stood where Eleonore had been, though the blonde now laid on the ground in front of her, curled up and shivering from the pain as her mother lowered her leg back to the ground, hand unfurling as she looked around, an expressionless stare on her face.
"I can't make my primordial magic weaker than this, but take this as a compliment. I rarely use elements in simple sparring matches since I can't regulate the damage output, yet I'm showing that I recognize your plan as having legitimately backed me into a corner. With that Water Snake, there was no way for me to escape given what you knew I could do, and you were also accounting for the fact that I don't intend to kill any of you."
David groaned, reaching his free hand to grip his shoulder as he pushed Derf into the ground to pull himself to a kneeling position, planting a foot down to slowly stand up. "I've...dealt with worse than that before, but that was unnecessary what you did to Eleonore. Going below the belt is a low blow, even when there's no rules like that…"
She raised an eyebrow, turning to him. "It was better than the alternative. If I had punched her while still affected by Windwalker's momentum, it would have been far more devastating than Fist. Kicking upwards makes use of the spine's shock absorption, so this way, she at least survived."
David frowned, coughing up some of the day's lunch and wiping his mouth off with his sleeve as he raised Derf again, though he wobbled where he stood. "No, not that...You did use Fist, didn't you? That was dirty."
She blinked, before standing straight, raising a hand to close it into a Fist as she walked forward, ignoring Yeshua as he rushed forward to aid the fallen woman. "So you noticed a detail as small as that even while you yourself were falling. I shouldn't forget about Gandalfr's abilities. But, how were you aware that I was using Fist when it was a kick?"
He stepped forward, aided by Water Dome, though now Derf's blade was exposed as he shook his head. "Eleonore told me...Fist isn't actually making your hand stronger or anything, that's just what you have to do to use it. What it really does is make your blunt force stronger...All Wellspring's like that, isn't it? It can't actually make you stronger, only multiply the forces it's used on."
She hummed, though her face remained neutral. "An easy deduction to make, and a correct one. Wellspring is fundamentally different from primordial magic, the same rules can't apply. Eleonore should be capable of it, but she has favored rash in-combat actions rather than learning the basics first. While you can't learn it, I suggest that you research it to understand its counters."
"Counters…" Fist, he knew could be handled simply by dodging it, and it didn't seem to boost her speed in any way. Shield, he didn't know of anything that could do it, but there had to be a way to put enough force to break through it, or a weak spot somewhere, though he wrote that off as impossible considering Karin's experience. Spear, he had an idea what it did, and it could probably be dealt with similarly to Fist. Redirect, probably simply took catching the opponent off guard, or at the wrong angle. The last of Chevalier Style's five spells, Shuffle, however…
He had no idea what that one did, and the name gave little evidence. If she wanted him to figure out a counter to everything in this fight, then she would have to use it at some point. Was it some form of dodging spell, making her feet lighter? That was the most likely answer, considering her very physical style of fighting.
Well, if she was going to dodge, then he would just have to hope Gandalfr's reflexes were good enough. The runes had already numbed the pain from his fall, allowing him to ignore the aching and focus on rushing forward, eyes narrowing as the now familiar tunnel vision began.
As he came within striking distance, he blinked as he found his sword hand thrown up in the air by her Shield-reinforced hand, forcing him to shift his body to the side to avoid her knee coming up where his stomach would have been.
He grunted in pain as he felt the vibrations from the sudden impact travel through his arm, before hardening his gaze, grinning as his plan seemed to have worked.
In the moment of her striking Derf, he could feel her hardened skin soften, and glancing down, he saw a red mark where she'd struck the pommel. She hadn't had time, or perhaps not the right conditions, to force Water Dome to come out again, which meant that now, there was a brief window where he could hit her.
With Derf raised too high to properly swing back down safely, he raised his other hand, balled into a fist as he shouted, twisting his body sideways to bring his fist in a right hook across her face.
The woman's expression didn't change as she snapped her fingers, and his eyes widened as she vanished from sight, replaced with a wide-eyed Yeshua, who didn't have the time to react to the sudden change in location before David's fist connected, sending the elf reeling into the dirt as the Gandalfr stared at him.
"Y-Yeshua! What...Oww…" His hand hurt from the impact, which felt like he had connected with Shield despite Karin having vanished, but Yeshua held a thumb up, groaning from his place on the ground.
"I'm okay, just...Look out, she's where I was…"
The elf was right, as the woman stood where he had been. A switch in position? How had she done that? Teleportation wasn't possible, there had to be something he was missing…
He didn't have the luxury of pondering the question as she rushed toward him, this time not using Windwalker and simply backhanding him onto the ground, sending the already exhausted boy into unconsciousness.