Complete Eastern Brisshal Blade Dance

[Crimson Ruby]

Ruby's face only grew redder noticing Fina's wide smile. She was totally smiling because of the meowing and Ruby was certain of it, everyone reacted just like that whenever she meowed. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Clearing her throat, she focused on teaching, so the embarrassment wouldn't start crushing her. "I-I get what you mean. Mine is much faster than what I have out there too!" She said with a nod. "And since I know how to dance, this makes things even easier in here. But anyway, your ax is great, and if you like to use it, it is even better. It is nice to be on good terms with your weapon."

Her ears then twitched at the mention of other weapons, making her wonder what Fina could make, something she would certainly question later.

Seeing her reaction to the clone, Ruby smirked a bit, patting the silhouette. "This will be your partner. It will be useful for you to try out the stance- Basically a very realistic dummy for you to work with." She pushed the silhouette closer to Fina, and it stood in front of her.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

It was probably the case for most people who decided to play things other than a pure mage. Unless they were bodybuilders or professional parkour artists, it was relatively easy to have a body faster and stronger in the game. However, that went doubly for Fina, given her situation in the physical world. Unlike Ruby, she could not carry over any experience like that.

"Yeah. I mean, my actual physical weapon is this thing." As she spoke, the feline looked down and nodded toward a small ornamental orb attached to her belt. It was a magical focus, of all things. "One of those floating foci thingies. Don't even have to touch it, and it lets me use arcanamancy to make things like this ax." In other words, she was in tune with the creations of her actual weapon rather than with the weapon itself. A bit funny, that.

When the shadow was called a 'dummy', Fina quickly got the gist of things and made some distance between herself and the clone. "Better than smacking each other around. Though I'm still a bit unsure about this whole dance thing…" Before she would actually try to strike the dummy, she attempted a few movements and weapon swings at the air, doing her best to mimic what she saw before the training even started. Not much else she could do while she was using Ruby's sword rather than her own arsenal.

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

Ruby twitched her ear and peeked down at Fina's belt, tilting her head when noticing the orb and then looking up at Fina once again, which started to explain a bit about her weapons and skills. A small 'o' formed on Ruby's mouth, who nodded eagerly at the other cat's explanation. "So that's how you made that giant ax fall out of nowhere? That's nice. This means you can rarely be disarmed as long as you still have this-" She looked at the foci with interest and curiosity.

Swaying her tail, she took a step away, giggling at Fina's words. "You are too stiff about dancing." She tilted her head. "Someday I want to try and teach you to dance, but today? Today it is fighting, so don't worry about dancing. We will be learning some maneuvers." She determined, taking a glance at Fina's form and attacks, nodding quietly and tilting her head.

"Interesting." Her tail swayed. "You are faster to adapt than I thought."

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

It was true that Fina could never be caught without a weapon as long as she had enough MP to create another one. She never actually quite thought about that, but now that it was said out loud, she'd have to make sure to keep it in mind just in case.

"Yes. In a way, fighting with a weapon in hand is only a part of what I usually do since the mastery also allows me to levitate my creations somewhat and use them at a distance. But I guess that's neither here nor there." The deal was that Ruby would try to teach Fina a bit about sword dancing, not chucking spears or making daggers rain down.

Unfortunately, that whole thing could have been going better as well. While Fina was praised for her adaptability, Ruby also called out just how stiff she was. "Ueh… I guess there's no way to act natural when there are eyes on me…" She murmured but still tried to face the dummy. "Okay, here I go for real, I guess." Just like that, she would lunge forward and try to perform some of the moves she had just tested out. Only, this time, against an actual object/opponent.

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

"I get what you mean, I also used to be timid dancing," Ruby said, smiling faintly. "And I'm still timid with people too, but only in crowds. One-on-one I got much better." She chirped proud about herself, even if that was something meant to be normal, she considered it to be a wonderful personal achievement. "But focus your attention on the enemy, and you won't need to worry about anything else!" She said, taking a few steps back to let Fina have her way with the illusion.

The illusion immediately got into a quicker stance when fina approached, and initially, it worked on trying to dodge Fina rapidly rather than trying to block attacks. First, because it was an illusion that was barely palpable, and second because the intention was to make Fina work on precision and speed, something that Ruby hoped would make her at least much better with her weapon arts.

With a small 'o' forming on her lips, Ruby watched Fina's maneuvers with interest, studying each of them carefully with her attentive eyes.

@Fina Drago (Feel free to control the illusions too!)

 

[Fina Drago]

Focus on the enemy and nothing else - while that might have been good advice, it was easier said than done. Letting out a sigh, Fina would close her eyes for a moment in an attempt to regain her focus and composure before opening them again and fixating on the illusion in front of her. No matter how much the feline tried to imitate the blade dancer's movements, she was just not used to them enough. With no practice, there was no way she could hit something that was able to dodge so well.

"Hrnn—!" With a bit of frustration building up, the girl would make a bit of a distance between herself and the illusion. Or rather, she would back herself into the ax she conjured before and a single spin of her body, grab the weapon with her free hand and toss it at the end of her little twirl. With enough force put into the motion, the giant weapon would spin like a disc, flying with an arch almost like a boomerang.

"I guess this is more of my style after all!" Shouting that, she dashed to the side so she'd approach the illusion from the exact opposite direction than the ax, effectively creating an attack from two sides at once. Not having refined moves mattered less when you could overwhelm your opponent with numbers or raw power.

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

While the Illusion did manage to avoid the attempt of more precise attacks of Fina, it was surely caught off guard when the strategy changed abruptly. Ruby was similarly caught off guard, with the attack managing to hit fully, far more than enough to make the illusion fade away in a crimson puff of smoke that lingered, brushing on the blades that struck it.

"Oooh!" Ruby clapped, clearly amazed by Fina's maneuver, swaying her tail while approaching the other girl.

"That was cool, very cool. Not exactly blade dancing, but it was just as pleasing to watch!" She said with a nod, looking at the illusory smoke fading away. Ruby then crossed her arms, tilting her head while musing what they could do with that.

If only they could get the best of both worlds--

Ruby's ears then perked up. "Say- Since you can't dance yet-" Emphasis on yet. "Why don't we do a blade dancing... in a more literal way." Ruby smirked.

"You said you can control your weapons, right?"

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

As the ax's blade managed to cleave through the illusion, the weapon would fly a few more centimeters before shattering mid-air and dissipating. Fina didn't also want to hit herself in the face with it, after all. And while it was a success that even warranted Ruby's approval, Fina let out a disappointed sigh. "Yeah, in the end, I just went for what I always do and am familiar with… But at least you enjoyed it."

In a strange way, the feline's fighting might have been quite a spectacle to watch. If in part because of how her arcanamancy creations worked. She still didn't quite figure out why, but everyone with that mastery ended up having creations that looked different. Fina's were all colored in blues and purples, often merging around the color of pale lavender. Her creations also often sparkled and almost looked like they were made out of beautiful gemstones. When creating multiple weapons and tossing them all around the battlefield, it probably looked quite pretty from some distance.

But going back to blade dancing, Ruby had another suggestion. Although it was one that Fina did not quite understand just yet. "H-huh? Yeah, I can. The bigger and heavier, the harder and more tiring it is for me to control, but I can levitate around just about anything I make for at least a little while."

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

"You don't seem too happy about it. A dead enemy is a dead enemy." Ruby said with a nod, knowing there was no wrong or right way to do things when the results were your survival.

When Fina showed a confused expression, Ruby giggled, swaying her tail and considering how to elaborate it.

"I was thinking. You seem skilled at controlling your weapons, so maybe instead of just throwing them, you could try to make them 'dance' with you. Cutting enemies and parrying attacks swiftly, rather than well- brute forcing." Ruby suggested, pondering for a moment before crossing her arms and making several illusory daggers orbit her in a chaotic dancing manner, something that would look fairly dangerous if it was real.

"Like this, but with your weapons, that are actually able to hit others." Ruby said, with her illusion soon fading away completely in a puff of crimson smoke.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

"In a real fight, that would be the case. Right now, we kinda had a different goal than to kill the enemy." The girl explained away her apparent unhappiness. There is no way she would have complained about winning a real fight, but destroying a training target was not much of a victory if she went about it wrong.

That said, the idea presented by Ruby was an interesting one and got Fina thinking. "Mmm… that might not be too bad. The question would be how long I could keep that up." She already knew that keeping small objects floating was pretty light on her mana consumption. However, actively keeping something big around and mid-air was far more complex, hence why she relied both on her abilities and natural physics when tossing around her ax. "Oh, but maybe…"

She recalled a little trick she was 'praised' for before when on a hunt with one of her friends. Creating several arcane balls covered in tiny spikes around herself, she would have them orbit the girl a few times before they would shoot out and embed themselves in the ground some distance from the two girls. Only a few moments later, they would suddenly shatter and reform to create several long piercing needles in their place. "Reforge. That might work!"

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

Ruby pondered about Fina's words, briefly nodding. "I guess you are right about it. It was a bit meaningless if you didn't do the blade dancing." A small sigh escaped from Ruby's lips. It was still cool to see the ax boomerang, nothing short of amazing to say the truth.

Looking at Fina, it was easy to see that she was at least interested on the idea of the literal blade dancing, something that brought a smirk to Ruby's lips. "Well, the how long is up to practice to learn how to save a bit more of mana." Ruby mused, then tilting her head to watch what Fina was trying to make.

The orbs caught Ruby's attention for a moment, and she resisted the urge to poke them especially when spikes appeared.

When Fina finally released them, Ruby widened her eyes, covering herself even if that wasn't enough to hit or hurt them. "Oh, wow- You are full of surprises." She side glanced Fina, swaying her tail.

"And what's your plan?" Ruby asked, turning to her.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Just like Ruby said, practice made perfect. If Fina were to actually start using techniques like this, she'd probably figure out a trick or two on how to keep weapons floating in the air without completely draining herself of mana in a matter of seconds. But that was hardly the point right now.

"Not much of a plan. But I figured this trick some time ago where I can 'reforge' my weapons once I toss them. Make them almost explode into needless, almost like shrapnel." It was honestly a pretty brutal technique. Especially if she could embed a piece of her weapon inside of an enemy, she could make it expand into needles inside of their flesh and pierce their internal organs with ease.

Taking a few steps back, Fina would concentrate a bit and then conjure up several floating daggers, their blades curved a bit to make it easier to spin them as they moved around her body. "Yeah! This way, I can use them for both offense and defense… and when they're about to be broken, launch them at the enemy and do extra damage when they get reforged into needles!"

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

Ruby listened attentively to Fina's reveal, nodding along and having her ears perking up in interest on knowing more about Fina and her abilities. The trick that was showed was certainly very useful, and judging by the way Fina spoke about it, Ruby couldn't help but wince at the idea of having a weapon shatterin on your face, with shards of magic cutting all of it.

"It sounds very strong, if you can do this sort of thing, then your blade dancing can be the deadliest of all!" After all, classic blade dancing was more for defensive and supportive techniques. The one from Fina would be mostly defensive and offensive.

She took one step back to allow Fina to summon the daggers, with her eyes brimming while looking at them.

When Fina was done with it, Ruby would quirk a smile on her lips, placing her hands behind her back before leaning in closer to the other cat girl. "This all sounds great, so why don't we put this in practice?" She swayed her tail, wrapping it around her sword.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Scratching the back of her head, Fina couldn't help but internally sigh. "Kinda feels like I'm coming up with a bunch of ideas, none of which relate to what I'm supposed to learn from you." Perhaps she had a hidden debuff that was forcing her to resist the idea of dancing as much as she possibly could? Well, at least the idea of exploding weaponry seemed like a decent one and could be incorporated into blade dancing in some way.

And, of course, there was that part where she should actually try the idea out in practice. "R-right. But only if you summon another illusion. I'd, uh… rather not accidentally hurt another player. Or get hurt myself if I'm perfectly honest." As brutal as her technique sounded with needles penetrating the opponent's flesh and internal organs, it would realistically be only ever used against monsters that presumably weren't programmed to lament their life choices after taking such an attack face-first.

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

Ruby shook her head at Fina, offering her an encouraging smile. "You said you are bad at dancing, right? We aren't learning how to dance in here, we are learning how to use the precision and the agility of movements that can be used to blade dance." Ruby tried to explain the girl once more, hoping that she wouldn't feel uncomfortable about their practice.

"Remember, step by step. You won't learn everything in a single day, right? We have been here for less than an hour." Ruby added, swaying her tail and then leaning away slightly at the rejection of the idea she had. Honestly, she wished to attempt sparring with her own hands, but she wasn't going to impose anything on Fina.

"Kindhearted, are we? I was hoping to try and fight it off." Ruby asked, twitching her ears and stepping away to summon another crimson silhouette. The girl then breathed a sigh, clenching her eyes shut while focusing on the illusion.

It moved, swaying its tail and then quickly going toward Fina, though this one moved a bit more realistic than the other.

"But you are right, let's play it safe." The Illusion suddenly spoke, looking at Fina while the real Ruby stood still and with closed eyes.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Precision and agility still sounded like the girl should be using her body rather than focusing almost entirely on how her mastery worked. But that aside, Ruby did have a point. Well, at least partially. They were still in a video game, so it was actually possible to learn many things in just one day as long as the person was dedicated enough. Terrasphere seemed a bit different in that aspect, though it definitely felt like Fina was figuring stuff out at a much faster pace than she ever could in the physical world.

"Kindhearted…" She repeated after Ruby, unable to help herself but mentally object to that classification. Not feeling one bit like a good person, she shook her head and tried not to think about it too much. She already bothered her close friends with her issues enough; no need to spill it on random strangers as well.

It was certainly impressive to have the illusion walk and even talk as if it were Ruby herself. Was the other feline in direct control? Before they would start, Fina walked over and held out the blade she was given before. "At this point, I think I should probably return this. I appreciate you lending it to me, but I think I should just use my own weapons." Once it was taken either by the real one, or the illusion, Fina would hop back a few times and summon two daggers, one for each hand.

"You said that blade dancing is usually more defensive, right? Go ahead and strike first, then! Just-uh— try not to kill me, please?" She survived quite the ordeal not too long ago, so she was happy to be still playing this game with no deaths under her belt. Getting one during training would be… not something she would ever want to talk about, ever.

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

The Illusion stared at Fina, tilting its head while noticing the way she reacted about being called kindhearted. It seemed like she had pulled a string or pressed a button, but that would be something to question later, not now. Practicing was the reason they were there right now.

When being offered her Jian back, the Illusion shook its head.

"Oh, well, this form can't really hold physical things. So feel free to toss it closer to my real body over there." It pointed at Ruby, that was still completely still and with eyes closed, almost as if in a deep meditation.

When Fina gave her conditions, the Illusion shrugged.

"I always go for a kill." An eerie black smile appeared in the crimson silhouette.

"But don't worry. This is just a practice." The Illusion unsheathed the illusory Jian, swinging it and taking a firm grip on it. For Ruby, it felt weird to move in an illusory body, especially since it felt so light, as light as a feather even. But that had to do, it was for Fina's learning sake.

Waiting for the girl to get ready, soon the Illusion blasted off in speed, going to the right of Fina, seeming to be trying to circle her, but suddenly she kicked the ground, flinging herself in a backward twirl to try to slash through the girl while crossing in front of her.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Being told to just kinda toss the blade in Ruby's general direction was enough of an answer to whether the girl was controlling her illusions directly now. While neat, it did seem to have the apparent flaw of leaving her actual body pretty defenseless. Walking over, she would carefully lay the weapon on the ground, not wanting to just jab it into the dirt and possibly dull the blade's edge a little.

The illusion's comments also unnerved the feline a bit. Even if it was a joke, there was no way for the silver-maned cat to tell. Starting to regret this whole ordeal a bit, she swallowed and gripped her daggers tighter. Then, the practice started. Being in the defensive position and with the goal to practice this whole blade dancing thing, Fina quickly conjured several more blades that would slowly float around her body.

They came in useful rather quickly as the illusion already started with its tricks, forcing Fina's body to turn one way only to then attack from a different angle while swiftly getting to move toward the feline's back. The blades would move into position, almost creating a tiny patch of a 'wall' that blocked the incoming strike, only for them to resume their previous trajectory. Fina herself quickly ducked and turned to face Ruby's illusion continuously. She was ready to bob and weave whenever possible.

@Crimson Ruby

 

[Crimson Ruby]

Maybe the way she decided to introduce her sparring was a bit too much. But it was under strong emotions that people gave their best, so perhaps it was the time to do it right, and very right.

The illusory blade clashed with the arcane blades, erupting a magical reaction that was akin to sparks flying from metal attrition. With the quick initial defense, there was amusement bubbling in Ruby's chest. The girl had barely started and she was already doing a good job at controlling her blades. Perhaps she wasn't that new at this deal!

Quickly, the Illusion took a step back and charged another attack sequence, this time being several rapid thrusts, taking quantity over quality.

The precision was lacking, but the intention was to trick Fina and eventually slipping past her defenses, though the evasion maneuvers combined with the arcana blades made it a tough task, especially to someone that was using an illusory body to fight.

Still, the Illusion didn't leave room for breathing for Fina, at least not yet.

@Fina Drago

 

[Fina Drago]

Thrust attacks, one of Fina's greatest opponents. While the various masteries did boost her physical abilities quite a bit, it was still challenging to dodge so many individual strikes when they moved that swiftly. Parrying all of them was also out of the question, as moving all of her summoned weapons at once to form a wall was much easier than controlling them individually. The best course of action in such a situation was to create a shield, but without the mastery of Guard Arts, it was never gonna last.

Not wanting to be turned into a pin cushion, there was only one course of action that seemed appropriate to the feline. Dashing back, she tried to make a little bit of a distance between them for at least a small moment so that the various floating blades could descend, and with a few jumps, Fina quickly found herself in the air, using the arcane constructs as stepping stones. Once high enough, she even materialized a spear in her hand and chucked it at the illusion, making it explode into a carpet of spikes with a single pole sticking out in the middle - something for her to land on without getting impaled herself.

@Crimson Ruby