No, she already wasn't going easy on me. That was one of her most powerful physical attacks she hit me with. Think iaijutsu, but with a sickle.
Well, I had to figure out how a thin woman with a sickle would fight. The best I could come up was "Quickly".Likewise, I'm sort of trying to go international with my cars, and to match quality names to quality people. Yugo was a chump, and these two are somewhat better- not great, but good enough to be dangerous, in grand Soviet tradition!
As for why Lada managed to take my arm off with one attack, I can't for the life of me remember anybody ever landing an unblocked attack with a physical sharp edge in the anime. Every time I remember seeing them used, I remember shields being raised to block. I sort of figure that barrier jackets are primarily optimized for magic deflection and blunt force trauma reduction, as a Mid-style cultural thing, and I picked this up as a consequence of learning Mid-style magic.That, and since Lada aimed for a major joint and caught me by surprise, she didn't have to deal with the full strength of my barrier. So my loss of limb was basically my fault, there are ways I can avoid it in the future, and there will be repercussions.
When I get to this point in SB, I'm going to have to majorly expand out what happened after I got back, arm in hand. Quattro won't be sad, I know that much- figure her verbal reaction to that would be "Hmph!", accompanied by turning her head away from me.
**********
Her high-speed attack had come from behind; when it stopped, she was a good ten feet in front of me, on my right side, and facing away from me. To her credit, she didn't stay there long- as soon as she stopped, she began to turn back in my direction.
Okay, so my right arm's off at the shoulder. Pain editors are active, and my systems cut off fluid flow to that limb, so I'm stable, and still have some combat capability. Still, I'm up against a close-combat mage at close range, down a hand, and have an objective to retain. If I fight her, I lose; if I run from her, I yield ZIL.
I'm clearly not going to triumph by force of arms this time. Really have to hand it to Lada- I totally wrist that one, and got rather neatly disarmed for my trouble. I just need to figure out a way to get out of this, and grasp it with both hands.
...I think I have a plan.When Lada turned around to face me, I'm fairly sure she expected me to be trying to stop my stump from bleeding. I'm certain she expected to see me in pain- possibly screaming, but maybe just hissing and biting my lip.
What she quite clearly didn't expect to see, judging by the stunned look on her face, was me standing there glaring at her, holding my severed arm in my good hand. I had its index finger extended, the other fingers curled up, and my good hand around its wrist... and very deliberately waved it back and forth at Lada, shaking my head in disapproval.
If I had to guess, she also didn't expect me to grav-lift ZIL, drape him over my back, blast the bloodstains I'd left out of existence, and put up a shield over my front side with my good arm. That bought me a good five seconds on shock value alone... and 2.7 seconds more of tactical thinking.
Right, so I've got her partner covering my back, and my strongest shield covering my front.
[SINGLE SHIELD]
...oh, right. [Thanks, Malleus.] Let's up that a bit, shall we?
The blue circle covering my front half expanded a foot or two... and then began to bend, as I pushed the center ring of the circle forward. The resulting shape resembled a traffic cone, in that it had a flat nose, sloping sides, and a flat edge at the back end. Two more traditional shields formed around it- one inside the cone, and one outside.Better.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Well, I had to figure out how a thin woman with a sickle would fight. The best I could come up was "Quickly".Likewise, I'm sort of trying to go international with my cars, and to match quality names to quality people. Yugo was a chump, and these two are somewhat better- not great, but good enough to be dangerous, in grand Soviet tradition!
As for why Lada managed to take my arm off with one attack, I can't for the life of me remember anybody ever landing an unblocked attack with a physical sharp edge in the anime. Every time I remember seeing them used, I remember shields being raised to block. I sort of figure that barrier jackets are primarily optimized for magic deflection and blunt force trauma reduction, as a Mid-style cultural thing, and I picked this up as a consequence of learning Mid-style magic.That, and since Lada aimed for a major joint and caught me by surprise, she didn't have to deal with the full strength of my barrier. So my loss of limb was basically my fault, there are ways I can avoid it in the future, and there will be repercussions.
When I get to this point in SB, I'm going to have to majorly expand out what happened after I got back, arm in hand. Quattro won't be sad, I know that much- figure her verbal reaction to that would be "Hmph!", accompanied by turning her head away from me.
**********
Her high-speed attack had come from behind; when it stopped, she was a good ten feet in front of me, on my right side, and facing away from me. To her credit, she didn't stay there long- as soon as she stopped, she began to turn back in my direction.
Okay, so my right arm's off at the shoulder. Pain editors are active, and my systems cut off fluid flow to that limb, so I'm stable, and still have some combat capability. Still, I'm up against a close-combat mage at close range, down a hand, and have an objective to retain. If I fight her, I lose; if I run from her, I yield ZIL.
I'm clearly not going to triumph by force of arms this time. Really have to hand it to Lada- I totally wrist that one, and got rather neatly disarmed for my trouble. I just need to figure out a way to get out of this, and grasp it with both hands.
...I think I have a plan.When Lada turned around to face me, I'm fairly sure she expected me to be trying to stop my stump from bleeding. I'm certain she expected to see me in pain- possibly screaming, but maybe just hissing and biting my lip.
What she quite clearly didn't expect to see, judging by the stunned look on her face, was me standing there glaring at her, holding my severed arm in my good hand. I had its index finger extended, the other fingers curled up, and my good hand around its wrist... and very deliberately waved it back and forth at Lada, shaking my head in disapproval.
If I had to guess, she also didn't expect me to grav-lift ZIL, drape him over my back, blast the bloodstains I'd left out of existence, and put up a shield over my front side with my good arm. That bought me a good five seconds on shock value alone... and 2.7 seconds more of tactical thinking.
Right, so I've got her partner covering my back, and my strongest shield covering my front.
[SINGLE SHIELD]
...oh, right. [Thanks, Malleus.] Let's up that a bit, shall we?
The blue circle covering my front half expanded a foot or two... and then began to bend, as I pushed the center ring of the circle forward. The resulting shape resembled a traffic cone, in that it had a flat nose, sloping sides, and a flat edge at the back end. Two more traditional shields formed around it- one inside the cone, and one outside.Better.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.