You seem to have miscounted. I ended up standing there, watching in front of me, watching behind me, and feeling around me. That's four different things. I'd've been chewing gum at the same time... but I'm all out of gum.
Incidentally, I sort of thought the Eye of Mimir was a good concept for a sensory spell. I'm trying to make Argus Eyes a more late-game development in the SB (or will it be SV?) version, and I figured that this was a good second step towards it. Area search, then Mimir, then an AS-variant designed solely for targeting, then the full Argus.
...actually, she's a speedster, Doylistically, because I made these two a pair of opposites. You've got the big, dumb, strong guy, and the thin, smart, fast woman. I made her a Lada because it fit the Soviet theme and the Nanoha car convention, and also because she's pretty much a tutorial opponent so she gets the name of a pretty cruddy car.
The Watsonian explanation is that she doesn't have the build to really make strength or charm work, nor the aptitude for blasting. Speed is her greatest natural talent, so she's been min-maxing around it.
And yes, Fate (or Tre) could practically waltz around her. Lada's fast... but she's not fast, if you catch my drift.
**********
Lada began to stalk around me, her sickle held in a guard position. "You are also criminal, I think. Enemy of Syndicate. What does that make you, hmmm? Prosperity Guild, perhaps? Part of a Family?"
I made no move to answer her. I'm surprised she didn't guess it. No sense giving it away.Lada snorted. "I care not. You are enemy... and now you die." She raised her sickle, a blood-red circle of runes appearing below her, and began to move.
Almost instinctively, I fell back on the lessons I'd learned in awareness training. Listen/follow bladewhine... THERE!
CLANG
Mal's flat edge smacked against the handle of Lada's sickle, almost stopping her strike in its tracks. Must've wanted to take arm. Suspect main use of awkward edge. I charged up a Fencer's
Blade in my off hand, twisting to shock her in the belly... only for her to twist her sickle, sliding it along the barrier I'd thrown up over Mal, and dropping into a crouch below my attack.
Protect/attack/SPELL!
The full Fencer's Arms- not just a blade over one arm and a shield over the other, but a shield-blade combo on each arm- snapped into place, just in time for me to turn my attack into a frantic block. Instead of trying to force her back, I hopped back, disengaging entirely.
Well, disengaging entirely for the half a second it took Lada to stand up, anyway. As soon as she did, she vanished- airmovingblockNOW!- only to reappear behind where I was standing, the now-sharp outer edge of her sickle grinding against one of my shields.
Lada's face, thin and hard at the best of times, grew even less pleasant as she scowled. "Those weapons... you are one who took ZIL from me, yes?" A second sickle appeared in her other hand, both heat and HF powering up even as she brought it down on my shield. "Do not try to lie! I see it now! I was going to kill you quickly- now you die slow!" My shield began to crack, so I jumped back again; that bought me enough time to refresh my shield- make refresh per-arm next time- and begin casting a new spell before she was on me again.
"NULL VORLAGERN", Malleus intoned, a note of triumph in his synthetic voice. Thin lines of wrongness- twisting, distorted space-time, the blue light of my power dancing along their rippling edges- carved themselves into the air in front of me, forming a grid about eight feet to a side. That grid then glided towards me, bending as if it was wrapping itself around an invisible barrier... and then stopped, just before it would've formed a complete sphere.
[ZERO SHIFT STABLE. TWO CHARGES STORED.] Mal's telepathic voice had that same note of pride to it. Going to have to look into that. How do Devices develop?All of this took just a bit over a second... long enough for Lada- who was already closing the distance again- to see my spell circle appear on the ground, notice the Zero Shift lattice begin to appear, and stop in her tracks before she hit it.
[DRAWING ADDITIONAL MANA. 2.2 CHARGES AND RISING.]
She prowled warily around its edges for a while, looking it over intently, before darting back in, one sickle swinging towards my arm.
Not a solid blow/only a small dodge required/miss me by inches!I just tilted sideways a bit, and let her sickle pass me by. It was close- close enough for me to feel the heat of the blade moving through the air- but not close enough to hit me.
[2.6 CHARGES STORED. CHARGING.]
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Incidentally, I sort of thought the Eye of Mimir was a good concept for a sensory spell. I'm trying to make Argus Eyes a more late-game development in the SB (or will it be SV?) version, and I figured that this was a good second step towards it. Area search, then Mimir, then an AS-variant designed solely for targeting, then the full Argus.
...actually, she's a speedster, Doylistically, because I made these two a pair of opposites. You've got the big, dumb, strong guy, and the thin, smart, fast woman. I made her a Lada because it fit the Soviet theme and the Nanoha car convention, and also because she's pretty much a tutorial opponent so she gets the name of a pretty cruddy car.
The Watsonian explanation is that she doesn't have the build to really make strength or charm work, nor the aptitude for blasting. Speed is her greatest natural talent, so she's been min-maxing around it.
And yes, Fate (or Tre) could practically waltz around her. Lada's fast... but she's not fast, if you catch my drift.
**********
Lada began to stalk around me, her sickle held in a guard position. "You are also criminal, I think. Enemy of Syndicate. What does that make you, hmmm? Prosperity Guild, perhaps? Part of a Family?"
I made no move to answer her. I'm surprised she didn't guess it. No sense giving it away.Lada snorted. "I care not. You are enemy... and now you die." She raised her sickle, a blood-red circle of runes appearing below her, and began to move.
Almost instinctively, I fell back on the lessons I'd learned in awareness training. Listen/follow bladewhine... THERE!
CLANG
Mal's flat edge smacked against the handle of Lada's sickle, almost stopping her strike in its tracks. Must've wanted to take arm. Suspect main use of awkward edge. I charged up a Fencer's
Blade in my off hand, twisting to shock her in the belly... only for her to twist her sickle, sliding it along the barrier I'd thrown up over Mal, and dropping into a crouch below my attack.
Protect/attack/SPELL!
The full Fencer's Arms- not just a blade over one arm and a shield over the other, but a shield-blade combo on each arm- snapped into place, just in time for me to turn my attack into a frantic block. Instead of trying to force her back, I hopped back, disengaging entirely.
Well, disengaging entirely for the half a second it took Lada to stand up, anyway. As soon as she did, she vanished- airmovingblockNOW!- only to reappear behind where I was standing, the now-sharp outer edge of her sickle grinding against one of my shields.
Lada's face, thin and hard at the best of times, grew even less pleasant as she scowled. "Those weapons... you are one who took ZIL from me, yes?" A second sickle appeared in her other hand, both heat and HF powering up even as she brought it down on my shield. "Do not try to lie! I see it now! I was going to kill you quickly- now you die slow!" My shield began to crack, so I jumped back again; that bought me enough time to refresh my shield- make refresh per-arm next time- and begin casting a new spell before she was on me again.
"NULL VORLAGERN", Malleus intoned, a note of triumph in his synthetic voice. Thin lines of wrongness- twisting, distorted space-time, the blue light of my power dancing along their rippling edges- carved themselves into the air in front of me, forming a grid about eight feet to a side. That grid then glided towards me, bending as if it was wrapping itself around an invisible barrier... and then stopped, just before it would've formed a complete sphere.
[ZERO SHIFT STABLE. TWO CHARGES STORED.] Mal's telepathic voice had that same note of pride to it. Going to have to look into that. How do Devices develop?All of this took just a bit over a second... long enough for Lada- who was already closing the distance again- to see my spell circle appear on the ground, notice the Zero Shift lattice begin to appear, and stop in her tracks before she hit it.
[DRAWING ADDITIONAL MANA. 2.2 CHARGES AND RISING.]
She prowled warily around its edges for a while, looking it over intently, before darting back in, one sickle swinging towards my arm.
Not a solid blow/only a small dodge required/miss me by inches!I just tilted sideways a bit, and let her sickle pass me by. It was close- close enough for me to feel the heat of the blade moving through the air- but not close enough to hit me.
[2.6 CHARGES STORED. CHARGING.]
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.