"So, why don't you two come with me?" She starts.
"Why single us out specifically?"
"Because out of everyone who left the bar, you two are the only ones that didn't go in the direction of the sound everyone heard."
"Alternatively... You could make us." Woahwoahwoah!
"Hold on, Messa. Why don't we just come quietly?"
"Because, even if I might have told you the basics, sometimes someone needs to actually show you for you to full understand."
"You're trying to pick a fight?" She asks, with a somewhat confused expression on her face.
"Seriously, Messa..." I start. "We aren't guilty, and trying to resist will make us look incredibly suspicious!"
"Even so, we were planning on rebelling anyway."
"No we were not!"
"Really? It seems only natural after everything I told you already."
"Even still, doesn't rebelling seem a bit... extreme?"
"Ah. So that's your outlook."
What does he mean by that?
"Listen." She says, tilting her head to look past Messa and towards me. "After I deal with him, you can quietly come with me, as long as you don't interfere with the battle."
"That's alright. I was gonna have him just watch anyway."
I have no control in this situation, do I?
"Watch closely, Isaac. I'll be able to explain everything aloud, so that you don't get confused. For instance..."
Here he goes again...
"By placing arbitrary limits on your ability, you can strengthen the ability, or add new aspects to the ability. Although, my limit is optional, so I get way less of a boost from actually using the limit."
"I too, have a limit, although mine is required to activate the ability." She starts to take off her coat, to reveal the tattoo on her right arm.
It depicts a bird flying through the night sky, soaring far above the ground.
"Ah, so that's your condition? I assume your ability has something to do with that tattoo. Or, you're lying to me. Regardless. My optional condition is a common one. It's simply to explain what my ability does to my opponent."
"Oh? Do go into detail."
"My ability is to summon a copy of my wedding ring, in any size or proportion. Of course, the larger the ring, the more cost it is to summon. I can also add some accessories on as well, such as replacing part of the ring with a handle. For telling you all of this, it will cost a little bit less to summon these rings."
After a moment, he summons a ring blade around himself. The design on the outside shows a lot of spikes, and a skull with a small gem inside its mouth.
"That's an... interesting design for a wedding ring." She says.
"Well... she was an interesting girl."
Oh shit, I actually feel really bad for him now.
"Now, I think it's about time you backed off."
Messa's already at an immediate disadvantage, since he's revealed that he's a summoner already. Were as the enemy has only implied her ability. It's likely that the ability is either an Evolver or a Spectralist ability though, if it's connected to that tattoo on her body. Since those two types of abilities focus on altering your body, it would make sense that the signal would be on your actual body.
While I was too busy thinking about that to myself, I didn't notice that the two were slowly edging towards each other. It wasn't long until the first attack was launched. It started with Messa using his superior range to slice at the enemy... Man, I should really get to know her name.
Regardless, she was using her force field move to negate any damage.
"Despite the fact that she's blocking all my attacks, I'm actually at quite the advantage. It costs energy to block attacks, while it may seem like it costs similar amounts to keep attacking like this, that's not the case, it actually costs a lot less to stay on the offensive like this. Plus, since I have an actual weapon, it costs even less for me to do just as much damage as if I was attacking with my bare hands. So if we kept at this pressure game, eventually she'll run out of energy far faster than I will. So she'll-"
Just as he tries to continue his sentence, the enemy sees a gap in Messa's offensive pressure, and jumps back, trying to get back to a neutral state. However, Messa was ready for that reaction, so he jumped right towards her, doing a twirl in the air before attacking just before he hit the ground, before then proceeding to continue his onslaught of attacks.
""-be forced to try and either escape, or directly punish an opening I may leave in my flurry of attacks. This position of someone attacking while the enemy is blocking, and trying to keep up that pressure for as much as possible is often called a "Blockstring" it's important terminology, so remember it."
So, the two were at the same position again, with the only exception was that a tree was about a foot away from the two.
"Even in situations where it costs the same amount of energy to attack as it did to defend, you can't win a fight by just blocking, so most people try and do something when you make them block for long enough. That's how people make mistakes. They get impatient, they try and see openings where there aren't any, they do an obvious move, that's how they get hit."
"But if they have a forcefield protecting them the whole time, then why would it matter if you hit them during an attack or not? Shouldn't it deal the same amount of damage?"
"Believe me, that hit after I dashed back definitely did more damage." She says, with slight pauses in her sentence, as she is still trying to block.
"I'm glad you're actually helping me out hereee..." he says, realizing he doesn't know her name either.
"The name's-" she starts to say, but she cuts herself off by dashing to the side, hiding behind the tree. She grips onto the tree and immediately starts sliding low to the ground. Although, Messa couldn't see that from his perspective, and his response is to focus a bunch of energy into his hands, and slice the tree in two!
But since the enemy was so close to the ground, she dodged the horizontal attack completely! She grips the top of the newly created tree trunk, and slings herself towards Messa, surrounding herself in mental energy, and kicking Messa in the jaw!
Messa was still defending himself with physical energy, but the enemy wouldn't stop at just one kick. She carries the two of them into the air with a flurry of kicks, before launching him back down to the ground, hurling him far away, causing him to smack into another tree!
"First, the name's Lina." She starts to say, while taking a deep breath. "Second, the reason why getting hit during attacks hurt more because what you describe as a "forcefield" is more of a physical enhancement to your body, so if you don't block properly, you'll still take similar damage."
"Now you know why I don't call it a forcefield!" Messa says, starting to get up from the rubble.
"Ok, but if you just hit him with a bunch of mental attacks, how did he go flying into that tree over there?"
"Because I hit him on the mental realm. Since the mental realm is parallel to our own, since I sent him flying in the mental realm, his physical body followed suit."
"Ok, thanks."
"I admit, that was a good move. I should've realised you'd do something different to evade my attacks than from last time. After all, if someone fails at trying to do something, they're less likely to do it again." There's a slight echo in his voice, since he's so far away. "If I'm correct, then you're a Spectralist, correct? People who have 100% proficiency in a mental specialty will be much faster when attacking with basic mental attacks, and vice versa for physical specialists."
"Correct." She says, starting a smirk as she turns back to Messa. "Now that you know that, I hope you don't mind if I press my advantage a bit!"
Suddenly, the grass depicted on her tattoo starts to glow green!