Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 5

[Oldmansour]

>Use Sapphire Lotus to deflect the flood away from us slightly, while dodging to the opposite side
>Then fire back at his barriers with an Amber Lotus

>Deploying your blue light once again, you turn the flood to your right and dodge to the left. The flood taxes your enlarged Sapphire light more than the simple bolt did, and it takes you a moment to switch gears and go back on the offensive.
>Kenyu elects not to try and facetank your amber light and goes evasive himself, placing himself directly opposite you again, grinning still. He snaps his fingers and a hefty axe appears in his right hand, the kind of axe you use in case of fire. It is not the axe he uses right away, though. "That was a trickle. Here comes the real dousing!" Kenyu unleashes another watery blast of Jeweled magic, this one coming in an almost solid line, as though it were launched from a massive fire hose.

[DracoOmega]

>Let's focus on simply dodging this one, since it's a lot narrower, and try again to hit him with an Amber Lotus

[Oldmansour]

>Let's focus on simply dodging this one, since it's a lot narrower, and try again to hit him with an Amber Lotus

>Narrow but fast. You are able to evade the shot, but only just. Had he used his Rose Jewel, that might have turned out differently.
>Feeling the chill of that magic fly by you, you unleash your Amber light once again. Kenyu laughs happily as he turns to face your attack, bringing his axe to bear against your light. The weapon immediately falls from Kenyu's hand when your light contacts it. The Blood male seems momentarily confused. "How'd you do that?" he asks, snapping his fingers. The axe vanishs and rematerializes in his right hand.

[DracoOmega]

>So presumably it only affected the axe and not the Rose barrier around him? Do we think this was because he incidentally blocked it?
>If so, let's try firing two Amber Lotuses in rapid succession - one for the axe if he parries with it again and then another before he can rearm himself

[Oldmansour]

>So presumably it only affected the axe and not the Rose barrier around him? Do we think this was because he incidentally blocked it?
>If so, let's try firing two Amber Lotuses in rapid succession - one for the axe if he parries with it again and then another before he can rearm himself

>Yes. And most likely. His axe appeared to be unconnected to the forcefield around him.
>So your adjust your tactics, and fire two more Amber beams at the big firefighter. Rather than use his axe again, Kenyu employs his Sapphire Jewel this time, but the barrier he erects shatters when your Amber light touches it. As Kenyu shakes his hand in surprise, your second beam strikes him on his shoulder. To your surprise, the Rose barrier around his body does not break. It weakens but remains intact.
>Kenyu's smile darkens a bit. "Oh so that's how it's gonna be?" he says, throwing his axe down to stick the head into the ground. It's within easy reach but leaves his hand free, which he fills another axe, this one smaller and composed of Rose Jewel magic. He conjures another one in his left hand with his Sapphire. They appear to be more for throwing than slashing, and Kenyu confirms this by hurling the two weapons at you one after the other, Sapphire leading Rose, as he uses his Rose Jewel to reinforce his sheild.

[DracoOmega]

>Quickly twist sideways and sidestep to avoid the axes and then fire another Amber Lotus

[Oldmansour]

>Quickly twist sideways and sidestep to avoid the axes and then fire another Amber Lotus

>It seems that you're not only capable of greater energy discharges, but you're also more dexterous as well. Even so, you're not quite dexterous enough to completely evade both of these axes. The Rose blades takes a slice out of your skirt, not impacting the flesh, but coming remarkably close to it.
>Kenyu frowns at your continuing use of your Amber Light. It's doing alright by you; you know know that you can fire those things off without any kind of noticable power dropoff, or at least more of then than you could before. Kenyu just flicks his left out and sends a glob of Sapphire light out in front of him, blocking your shot. He sighs and picks up his axe again. He seems to consider something for a moment, then shrugs and follows your example, employing his conjured axes again. This time, however, he sends out four of them, three from his Sapphire Jewel and the last from his Rose, at staggered intervals and angles.

[DracoOmega]

>If Amber 'disarmed' him earlier, let's see if it can work just as well on axes in mid-flight. Try a wide-angle Amber Lotus at the incoming volley, or at least the part of it that's closest together - sidestepping the other part of it
>But be ready to dodge/block if this doesn't work as well as hoped
>But if it does work well, let's follow up with an Orange Lotus for a change of pace

[Oldmansour]

>If Amber 'disarmed' him earlier, let's see if it can work just as well on axes in mid-flight. Try a wide-angle Amber Lotus at the incoming volley, or at least the part of it that's closest together - sidestepping the other part of it
>But be ready to dodge/block if this doesn't work as well as hoped
>But if it does work well, let's follow up with an Orange Lotus for a change of pace

>The axes are staggered enough to be difficult to dodge, but not so spread apart as to be beyond the range of your Amber if you choose to stretch it out. So you deploy your Amber light once more in a wide cone of energy, and it works fairly well. The three Sapphire Axes slow then fade under your Amber assault, but the Rose is too much for light to absorb. One on one, maybe, but not after stopped the other three axes. But with just the one axe to dodge, you take half a step the right and let the Rose axe fly past you.
>As you go for some variety and unleash your Orange light upon Kenyu, however, he snaps his fingers again, and the Rose axe explodes with furious force, pitching you forward, making your Orange light fly upwards at the ceiling instead of at the big man. The blast takes you off your feet, and you fall forward onto the packed dirt of the arena floor.
>Instead of launching some kind of attack against you, Kenyu grips his axe in both hands and starts to run towards you, eschewing for the moment his ranged powers.

[DracoOmega]

>Send a Sapphire Lotus along the ground and then abruptly raise it into an ankle-high barricade right when Kenyu should run into it; try to pitch him forward onto the ground as we pull ourselves upright
>And then if we can manage it, hit him with another Amber Lotus while he's prone
>Or if he manages to evade the trip, just focus on not getting hit by that axe in his hands

[Oldmansour]

>Send a Sapphire Lotus along the ground and then abruptly raise it into an ankle-high barricade right when Kenyu should run into it; try to pitch him forward onto the ground as we pull ourselves upright
>And then if we can manage it, hit him with another Amber Lotus while he's prone
>Or if he manages to evade the trip, just focus on not getting hit by that axe in his hands

>The big firefighter's smile returns as he sees your blue light appear again. He adjusts his course to his left to get around your Sapphire light, but is seemingly unprepared for your quick creation of a tripping hazard. As a credit to his reflexes, he does react quickly and tries to jump your barricade, but his feet are unable to completely clear the blue bump in the road. At first he manages to stay on his feet, staggering forward in a barely controlled manner another few steps before finally losing his balance and falling not prone, but to one knee. He displaces a lot of dirt in the doing.
>"You're getting slow, Kenyu." a tautning male voice calls from your left. Sparing a glance over in that direction you see the tengu and her tiger youkai friend have wandered over in this direction and are now watching the match between you and Kenyu. In fact, a lot of people in that direction are now watching you and the Blood male fight.
>"Maybe you should have started with a weak one." Cynthia the tengu adds.
>Kenyu has time to quickly glare at the two members of the peanut gallery before you blast him with Amber Lotus once again. Just as before, the blast weakens his sheild quite noticably but fails to destroy it completely.
>His glare is replaced by a smile as he turns his attention back to you. "That's more like it." he compliments you before infusing his axe with some of his Rose power and strikes the ground with it again. The ground between you and he starts to rumble ominiously.

[DracoOmega]

>Conjure our flying disc and let's get the heck away from this ground before... whatever's about to happen happens
>Also, when our Amber Lotus is weakening the shield without destroying it, as best as we can tell is it staying weakened afterward? Like, are we actually chipping away at it or is it regenerating between hits?

[Oldmansour]

>Also, when our Amber Lotus is weakening the shield without destroying it, as best as we can tell is it staying weakened afterward? Like, are we actually chipping away at it or is it regenerating between hits?

>From what you've observed, it regenerates strength only when Kenyu consciously puts power into it; it doesn't seem to regenerate on its own.

>Conjure our flying disc and let's get the heck away from this ground before... whatever's about to happen happens

>Excersizing the better part of valor, you take to the air to get away from the expected assault from the ground as it shakes and rumbles under the force of Kenyu's power.
>Except the attack doesn't come from the ground. The shaking abruptly stops, and you feel Kenyu's Rose Jewel fire again. With your attention on the ground, Kenyu is able to take advantage of your momentary distraction to blast you with his stronger Jewel. The bolt of power takes you off your disc and throws you to the ground. It staggers you that the impact of hitting the ground actually hurt more than getting hit by a power bolt almost strong enough to have come from a Champion.

[DracoOmega]

>So the ground's really not doing anything at all? That was just a distraction?
>Let's get back to our feet quickly and fire a Scarlet Lotus burst with an Orange Lotus snuck in after it

[Oldmansour]

>So the ground's really not doing anything at all? That was just a distraction?
>Let's get back to our feet quickly and fire a Scarlet Lotus burst with an Orange Lotus snuck in after it

>It's not doing anything anymore.
>As you regain your footing, you hear a fair number of people cheering around you. Well perhaps 'cheering' isn't entirely accurate, as a lot of the noise could more accurately be described as 'whooping'. A glance down reveals why. That blast may not have done you any damage, but your clothes are another matter. Kenyu's blast did nearly as much damage to your outfit as you did to Youmu's. He... may be more than you can handle alone.

>You and Kenyu regain your footing at the same time and point at each at the same time. Your Scarlet Light meets his burst of Rose power in midair, and his light proves the stronger, cancelling out your Scarlet barrage and continuing on towards you, where it is stopped by your Orange Lotus, the two attacks negating each other.
>Kenyu stands loosely, his grip light on his axe. "Haven't had enough?" he asks.

>Are you okay, Mistress? Rin asks you.

[DracoOmega]

>Would it take any actual time or focus to poof the rest of our outfit back into existence now?
>How much control do we have over the trajectory of your Amber and Orange Lotuses? Could they be curved to strike from unexpected angles? Particularly if mixed with something else as a distraction?

[Oldmansour]

>Would it take any actual time or focus to poof the rest of our outfit back into existence now?
>How much control do we have over the trajectory of your Amber and Orange Lotuses? Could they be curved to strike from unexpected angles? Particularly if mixed with something else as a distraction?

>It wouldn't take long or a great deal of energy, but it would be a distraction.
>They are both aimable, and yes you can curve them. It takes a bit more concentration to direct your along alternate courses.
>Clarifiy.

[DracoOmega]

>As in: could we fire a number of shots in succession and have them come from different angles of Kenyu's body, to make it harder to actively evade/block them?
>And our Orange Lotus is a lot smaller/subtle too, right? So could we sneak that in among a barrage of something else?

[Oldmansour]

>As in: could we fire a number of shots in succession and have them come from different angles of Kenyu's body, to make it harder to actively evade/block them?
>And our Orange Lotus is a lot smaller/subtle too, right? So could we might that in among a barrage of something else?

>Yes, and more easily than you could a few days ago.
>Hitherto, you haven't been able to manifest more than one colored Lotus at once. However... you think you can now. You're stronger now than you were, and you think you can now manage to employ two different colors simultaneously. However, you don't think you can fire two Lotuses simultaneously at their full strength. For instance, if you were to deploy both Sapphire and Scarlet Lotus at once, your Sapphire shield would not be able to block as much damage as it normally would, and the damage output and range of your Scarlet barrage would be compromised.

[DracoOmega]

>I'm fine, don't worry.
>"It wouldn't do for someone in the business of fighting Champions to give up this easily."
>Let's opt for the multi-angle Amber Lotus barrage instead of trying to mix them at this point and if we can put a bit more punch into it than we've done thus far - do it. Clearly we shouldn't be holding back here.

[Oldmansour]

>I'm fine, don't worry.
>"It wouldn't do for someone in the business of fighting Champions to give up this easily."
>Let's opt for the multi-angle Amber Lotus barrage instead of trying to mix them at this point and if we can put a bit more punch into it than we've done thus far - do it. Clearly we shouldn't be holding back here.

>Despite the inherant non-lethality of the duel, you still sense Rin's worry. Dear girl doesn't like to see you losing even a little.
>Kenyu's smile broadens, but the comment you hear comes from the tiger youkai. "She speaks!"
>"And here I thought she couldn't fight and talk at once." his tengu friend sneers at you.
>"You watch what you say about her!" White Rose says hotly to the two Blood.
>"Watch yourself, cat." Cynthia spits at her. "Or I'll give you some of what Kenyu's about to give your boss."

>Perhaps angered by the tengu's harsh words at Rin, you pour a great deal of punch into your Amber Lotus, conjuring forth well over a dozen blasts of radiant energy. But if anything, Kenyu seems even happier at the sight. "Okay, Lotus, you want to test your shield cracker? Try THIS." He punctuates his sentence with a surge of Rose energy, and the firefighter surrounds himself in bright blue flames, erupting with a sound like a gas explosion and an intense wave of heat. Your multi-angled missiles waver and weaken in their trajectories under that supernatural wave of heat, and have to hold your arm before your face to keep your eyes from closing of their own accord.

[DracoOmega]

>We've pushed through worse! Give it more power!
>Er, unless our Amber Lotus has already been effectively nullified?
>...for that matter, I don't suppose we have any way to douse that? Magical water? Flame-retardant? Something?

[Oldmansour]

>...for that matter, I don't suppose we have any way to douse that? Magical water? Flame-retardant? Something?

I'll address this one first, in the event you wish to adjust your tactics.

>Among your current techniques, you have no straightforward method of dousing fire. You can starve a fire, theoretically, by enclosing it in a Sapphire Lotus until all the oxygen within the field is consumed, provided there's no one in there with the fire. Some of your techniques can be made lethal, but Sapphire Lotus is defensive in nature and can't be used as a lethal weapon.
>If you wished to employ a more 'traditional' means of extinguishing a fire, such as foam or water or something similar, a new color of Lotus will be required, and is not beyond your skill or power level to create.

[DracoOmega]

>Are you saying we're theoretically capable of conjuring actual fire-retardant foam? Like, specifically anti-fire stuff?

[Oldmansour]

>Are you saying we're theoretically capable of conjuring actual fire-retardant foam? Like, specifically anti-fire stuff?

>Is it any stranger than an orange-colored leeching spell or a flying disc?
>In saying that, however, it would be more effective as an anti-fire technique if it had Water or Ice attributes to it, as your Vermillion Lotus is a Fire attribute spell.

[DracoOmega]

>If we feel water would be more effective from a power perspective, then let's go with that. The most anti-fire-y we can make it (because we're sure to have use for that if we indeed end up needing to fight Fire)

[Oldmansour]

>If we feel water would be more effective from a power perspective, then let's go with that. The most anti-fire-y we can make it (because we're sure to have use for that if we indeed end up needing to fight Fire)

>You require a name to give form to this ability.

[DracoOmega]

>Let's go with 'Ablution of the Niranjana'

[Oldmansour]

>Let's go with 'Ablution of the Niranjana'

>All things considered, it's almost a surprise you haven't come up with an anti-fire spell before now, given how long the Fire Champion's been active. But now faced with the flame-wielding firefighter, you manifest the spell 'Cerulean Lotus: Ablution of Niranjana.'
>And deploy it straight away. Your Amber Light had not actually been defeated by Kenyu's heat wave, simply weakened. But that doesn't mean you can't employ your new power as well. Perhaps the two-pronged attack will prove more effective than either would be individually. Your new Cerulean Lotus emerges as a stream of smoky, cold foam that spread out in a cone shape. Kenyu's Rose powered fire shield had been holding up fairly well against your weakened Amber Lotus barrage, but the fiery shield waves and sputters as your Cerulean cone strikes it. The two opposing forces contend with each for a moment before the flames, already weakened, sputter and cough one last time and then die off, revealing a Kenyu who isn't as surprised as you might have hoped. In fact, still smiling, he starts to charge you again.

[DracoOmega]

>If he's not going to rest, we can't either. Give him another Amber Lotus and be ready to hustle out of the way.