Discontinued Eastern Brisshal To The Top

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno held back a laugher at Cleo's comparison. "If anything, I'm glad you think of me as someone of a knightly image, even if satirical." He said, grinning at it. "Honestly this was all supposed to be a more heroic look, but this is far from my mind nowadays, but y'know, fashion sticks." Hanno shrugged. In the past, he did have the desire of being a hero, but after the game showed its true colors, this 'desire' became more of a 'necessity'.

His eyebrow rose at her words, surprised to learn about her fighting style.

"Really?" He approached, both intrigued and interested.

"From the way we fought today, you are certainly very skilled at the deal of hitting things directly with your spear. I thought this was more of your style." Hanno said honestly, wondering how she went with the idea of throwing copies of her own weapons at the enemies.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

I suppose it would stick, yes. And there's not really any reason not to go with a particular look, considering it's not like you have to wear a uniform or anything of the sort. If you wanted to look like a knight or a hero, then there's really no point in not trying to look like one.

Though Cleo herself hadn't really gone for any kind of look, fashion or aesthetic. She'd picked everything basically at random. The only choice that she couldn't really explain away pragmatically was the choice to throw spears, rather than fire a gun or anything like that. It really was just a simple case of having had to handle firearms in the past too many times to find them all that interesting.

Though when questioned about her fighting style, Cleo could only shrug and produce a few copies of her spear behind her.

I really have no clue why I chose to focus on throwing spears, though I found that I could rival firearms with them and they also always double as a melee weapon, so it's pretty useful in its own right.

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"Yeah, you are right, buddy. There is nothing wrong with getting some nice looks." Hanno chuckled looking at Cleo, looking at her up and down and trying to figure out a bit of her design choice. That was until he noticed that he shouldn't be staring at someone, making him clear his throat and avert his eyes for a moment, adjusting his shield and then pondering at her answer.

"To think someone would be able to rival firearms being a javelin throwing machine." He grinned, then noticing one of the many things she could've been doing with her chronomancy.

"Say, have you ever speed up your throwing spears? Maybe they could actually be just as fast as bullets if you placed enough time magic in it." He took a guess, never really seeing Cleo throwing a spear in first place, so he couldn't know how fast she was at throwing her weapons without any magic backing her up.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Was... was Hanno checking her out just now? Cleo looked at the Faerin as he seemed to look her up and down, which was pretty noticeable given the difference in their heights, before he seemed to catch himself, clear his throat and look away. He also seeemed to adjust his shield whenever he felt unsure or anxious about something, she'd picked up on. She wondered if it was a conscious thing or just a nervous tick that he'd developed? If he relied on his shield as much as he seemed to, perhaps touching it was, for him, something that gave him a sense of comfort?

It's definitely interesting being able to throw spears and have them rival guns in terms of damage and efficiency. Though to be fair, they haven't yet introduced modern day firearms to this game.

And yet, she had perhaps found a solution to that. As Hanno asked about if she ever sped herself up when she threw her spears, or sped her actual spears up to make them more like bullets, Cleo nodded. It was probably a little ironic that she'd used her Chronomancy only on her spears and nothing else, but she'd always treated it as an extension of that craft and not as its own thing.

Actually, I do have a certain technique of using Chronomancy with my spear throwing, if you'd like to watch? You might have to stand back though.

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno tried to not avert his face too much when Cleo looked back at him. He didn't want to give away so easily that he was staring at her, even though her face somewhat showed she was pretty aware.

Amazing, now he looked like a weirdo.

A quiet chuckle escaped from his lips, and he embraced the new topic like it was his salvation. "I've seen some pretty nasty magitech warfare though. But... Nothing like a machine gun shooting." He said, pausing before trying to register her offer.

"Actually yeah? I'd love to watch that, buddy." Hanno said, perking up and getting his shield ready as he moved a bit farther, casting a glance at Cleo to see when she thought the distance was enough to be approved. It wasn't like Hanno would like to be caught by a stray spear (if such a thing could be named that).

"Whenever you are ready-" He said, resting a hand on his hips and waiting for Cleo to do her thing if she wished.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Well yeah, I expect that with some advancements, Magitech might be able to heavily outpace the other Masteries, though the actual existence of magic might make it easier for other things to function on a level playing field.

There had to be something inherently magical about even the martial masteries, such as Slash and Pierce, since Cleo was pretty sure that there was no way some of the things that could be done with only those masteries could be achieved without some kind of magical aid. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that all people and living creatures were, in some way, inherently magical in ways that allowed them to function and perform such superhuman feats on a more normal basis.

Though with Hanno agreeing to watch her and moving a safe distance away, Cleo narrowed her focus, briefly drifting into a state where the only thing that mattered to her was completing her objective. Her body began to speed up as Chronomantic magic flowed through her.

And then two spears were formed and launched in under a second, only to freeze in mid air, then they were followed by two more that froze. This repeated until she had created a wall of frozen spears, numbering in the multiple dozens.

And then, she released her hold on the freeze, launching the whole wall at once. She let the constructs dissipate before they actually hit anything, but still turned to look at Hanno.

So, what do you think? I use this technique to cover a wide area all at once. I can accurately paint a zone with spears from a pretty big distance away.

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

"I would be scared about seeing someone like you with a machine gun though." He said with another chuckle, waiting and looking at Cleo as she prepared herself to show off her spear throwing skills, patiently waiting for her to get everything ready.

When she did, the first two spears made Hanno blink surprised. "So quick-" He muttered, tilting his head while Ghast watched the whole situation intently and without blinking.

Hanno then widened his eyes slightly, seeing Cleo starting to throw more and more spears, one after another and always freezing them. It took a few seconds for Hanno to realize what she was trying to do, but as soon as he understood her intentions, his mouth half opened, surprised by it.

And when Cleo finally released all of that, Hanno tried to cover himself with his shield almost instinctively, seeing the unstoppable spear wall charing forth before disappearing at Cleo's will.

"That looks so strong!" Hanno said, looking at her with wide-open eyes. "It does take a bit to prepare if you want to get a larger area, but it would be super useful. It is pretty much a one-woman volley of spears!" He said, excited.

"Did you ever get to put it in practice?" He wondered.

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Well it seemed that her little display had impressed Hanno, which satisfied Cleo for now. Not that she particularly had a need to impress people, but at least she could use the reactions of other people to judge whether or not something she was doing could be effective or not. It wasn't the most accurate measure, of course, but it did give her something to work with, rather than just her own opinions and points of views, since people could see things that she couldn't, looking from the outside rather than from her own point of view.

Ah, I actually slowed that down a bit from how I would normally do it, so you can see what I was actually doing. The actual combat variation of that technique just uses raw arcanamancy to set things up and fire them, so I don't have to waste time physically grabbing and throwing each spear.

She brushed herself off. She could make it even stronger if she took on her Evoke form, but it wasn't exactly something that she was quite ready to put into practice yet.

I've still got some more development to do with it, but it's taken a bit of a backseat towards some other skills and techniques. Mostly trying to increase my versatility at the moment.

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno listened and crossed his arms dumbfounded at the reveal, half opening his mouth with a vague hint of fear in his eyes. "Remind me to never make you mad at me then, I don't want to become a swiss cheese." He chuckled nervously.

"I do hope this doesn't take a lot of energy though, in combat, it can be a problem for resource management." But judging from the way she spoke of it, probably that wasn't an issue when using that skill, or Cleo had mastered it enough to actually save energy when doing it.

"More development? What else you have planned for this particular skill?" So far it sounded like it was a pretty solid attack for Hanno, making it pretty hard to think on what and how else it could get any better.

Maybe he was being too close-minded, however.

"If anything, we can see if we can try to work on it today. Or we can call it a day for now, if you think you don't have enough time for it."

@Cleo Looker

 

[Cleo Looker]

Energy isn't actually a problem. I can produce ten spears for the same amount of energy that it would take somebody to produce a single brick using Arcamancy. That's the perk of choosing to specialize so heavily in spear production. I get to produce a lot of them and the cost for it is so ridiculously dirt cheap that it might as well be nothing.

She felt like she was bragging, which made her feel a little bit awkward, but if it gave Hanno a better idea of her skills and a better idea of just how useful she could be as a teammate, then she'd suck it up and ignore the way that complimenting herself made her feel just a little bit dirty and arrogant. Some people would kill for the chance to have as many good things to say about themselves or their skills as Cleo had in this game, after all.

As for what was in development, Cleo smirked, nodding.

I'm working on a few different variations. A scattershot variation, where the spears scatter and spread further. A variation where the spears change direction in mid air and home in on different targets. A variation that I can use for defense by spawning a wall of spears to block an attack or charge.

Safe to say, she had quite a few ideas and a lot to work on.

I think we should call it a day, though. Maintaining those buffs has me a little too drained to do much more, so I'm basically running on fumes.

It was only due to the fact that she'd refined her spear creation skills so well that she'd managed to pull off that last technique when her tank was basically empty.

@Hanno Futaba

 

[Hanno Futaba]

Hanno blinked surprised at the reveal. "Oh, wow, that's something. I didn't know arcanamancy was so efficient." He muttered, crossing his arms and tilting his head as he pondered about it as he listened more about her plans for developing her skills... And so far it sounded like they were very solid plans. Some of them sounded rather tricky, but considering how well Cleo was controlling her spears, it was probably very possible for her to do it.

"Sounds like you will have a lot to tinker on then, buddy." He chuckled, slowly getting his things ready, stuffing items he had removed from his bag back into them and shifting a glance to Cleo, grinning.

"I'd say we both need a good rest then. Today we couldn't find anyone while training, but I guess that is fair to assume since we stood in one place this time... And that the first big wave of newcomers already went through." Now only the slowpokes were logging in and registering their characters, which was a relief, less and fewer people were going to create characters in this cursed game.

"I will see you around then?" Hanno smiled fondly at his friend.

@Cleo Looker