Ashlee vs. Ankio

"... I know it sounds risky, Crowire, but I think we can do it," said Ashlee as she stood in front of the cube of earth that led into the Ward Arena. Crowire chirped in approval just before Ashlee called her back into her Relic and entered the door.

My first Arena, thought Ashlee as she hesitated momentarily in the hallway. "I can do this," she repeated to herself as she began to walk forward once again, taking note of the torches lining the walls. It's odd that they still use torches, thought Ashlee.

Finally, she entered the Arena and waited for Ankio to address her.

An old sage sat atop his platform, legs crossed and chanting entrancing rhythms. One eye opened slightly, observing his new challenger. Without standing, and after closing the eye he had opened, he spoke. "Welcome to Ward's Arena. It's always good to see new trainers, though I hope you're not too new." Now he stood, blinking his eyes once or twice to adjust. "I assume you know the standard rules of an Arena battle, but there are a few rules of Ward." He stopped to gather his thoughts.

"One," he pointed at the many stalactites hanging from the top of the arena, "no attacking or aiming an attack at the ceiling. My relics are held there. Two," now he gestured with both hands at the many torches lining the battlefield, "do not extinguish the torches, I doubt you'd like to fight in the dark. Three," he pointed at himself and chuckled, "please don't attack my platform. Four, if I deem that your Natrelmon is too injured to go on, and you refuse to recall it - something I can tell that you won't do - I hold the power to stop any fight.

"With that said, let's begin. I'll show you just how hard it is to budge an Earth type!" He pointed dramatically into the air, for added emphasis. As he finished his sentence, Grianos appeared in the middle of the Arena, slapping its tail against the ground twice in anticipation of a fight.

"Umm... okay." Ashlee giggled a little at Ankio's over-dramatic mannerisms. She withdrew a Relic from her bag and from it flowed a green mist which almost instantly formed into an Omutiel about fifteen feet above the ground, five feet in front of Ashlee, and three feet to her left. This put her about thirty feet away from the Grianos, plenty of time to set up, especially considering the pool of water in between the two Natrelmon which Grianos would have to circumnavigate.

Immediately upon being released, Omutiel began to drop seeds into the ground beneath her and around her, at the same time observing the Grianos carefully. The seeds would be placed within an area the shape of a rough circle about ten feet in diameter, with Omutiel at the center. Omutiel would continue dropping the seeds until she needed to dodge or do something else. Ashlee also kept her eye on the Grianos, ready to use a spell if necessary.

"Let's go, Grianos. Try to shoot the bird down." Grianos backed up a few feet from the pool of water and was now standing on solid ground without a water pool near him. Three sharp Stone Blades were launched consecutively, about three seconds apart from each other. They flew horizontally, spaced about a foot apart. At a diagonal angle, the only ways to dodge them would be to radically move to the right or left, which it could, or continue to gain altitude.

"Now blo-." Ankio stopped his command and thought for a second. Using Earth Shot to dispose of those seeds wouldn't do anything, they would still reach the ground..

"Stay idle, Grianos."

"Hold," said Ashlee as she saw the Stone Blades flying towards Omutiel. With their trajectory, she estimated, the Stone Blades would not be able to hit Omutiel at this distance, and she was correct: the Stone Blades, despite being aimed at an optimal angle, did not quite have the velocity to make it to Omutiel, instead landing about eight feet in front of the bird.

While the Stone Blades were soaring through the air, Omutiel continued to drop seeds onto the ground around her. There was quite a large amount now, probably more than Omutiel would need. So, Ashlee ordered the bird to stop and fire two Seed Bullets at the middle Grianos's back, aimed so that they would arc down on the Natrelmon from above, making dodging difficult, especially since Natrelmon like Grianos couldn't really move to the side that well. Ashlee and Omutiel, of course, remained ready to dodge or change their plans at any moment.

"Wise." Added Ankio as he ordered Grianos to fire a sweeping Earth Shot. The packed stream of particles would arc into the air from a sand pit, positioned to sweep away the Seed Bullets on their course to Grianos. Grianos as well advanced forward, dodging the pool of water on his way. He was moving at a rate of two feet per second.

It remained on the defensive, ready to erect a slab or fire a counter Earth Shot in defense.

"Omutiel, now!" shouted Ashlee just as the Grianos began to move. Omutiel began to flew forward very quickly, reaching Grianos before it would have much of a chance to react and when it was just at the pool. When it was just passing over Grianos, Omutiel released the Pollen Explosion it had been charging straight at the Natrelmon's back. Grianos would probably be unable to dodge or block this due mainly to two factors: the attack moved very quickly due to gravity and Omutiel's momentum, and Grianos could not move quickly enough to dodge the attack, especially when it had to worry about the pool of water direction in front of it and its limited ability to move to the sides; the attack was also coming down from above the Grianos, so it would be unable to raise any stone slabs in enough time to block the attack. The pollen would hit the Grianos square in the center of its back, heavily damaging and poisoning the Natrelmon and also clouding the air around it with pollen, which would make it difficult. That, combined with the sudden impact of the attack, would most likely cause the Grianos to slip and fall into the pool of water if it wasn't recalled quickly, which it probably would be, since its Relic would glow faintly due to the attack.

Omutiel and Ashlee remained ready to change their plans if necessary.

Foreseeing the catastrophe, Ankio recalled Grianos before it could be harmed. "Well done. A surprise attack is the perfect strategy for a less agile Natrelmon like Grianos." Suddenly, mist drifted upon the field and materialized into Rhyferno. "Attack, Rhyferno, Singe Bullets!" Immediately responding to the command, Rhyferno carried out the simple task of firing five Singe Bullets in a cross-shaped pattern at the Omutiel, placed to strike quickly and with little room for error.

~Quite the trainer.~ Thought Ankio, watching the battle unfold further.

Unfortunately, since Rhyferno was called out only a few feet behind where Grianos had been (Joe said this, not me), Omutiel was already behind the Natrelmon by the time the Singe Bullets were out of its mouth, and so the attack was useless. While Rhyferno was wasting its time with the Singe Bullets, Omutiel began to turn around and fly back toward Ashlee, at the same time ready to dodge if it needed to. Ashlee was, at the same time, ready to use a Feeble Wall or inform Omutiel about any incoming attacks.

As Omutiel was turning around, Rhyferno took the time to do the same, ready to block any attack with a quick Earth Shot coming from the sand pit four feet to its soon-to-be right. As it finished turning around, Rhyferno attacked as it did previously. Right now it was a little angry that it at fired into thin air..

Once again, Omutiel was behind Rhyferno long before it began to fire the Singe Bullets, since Omutiel had immediately began to fly towards Ashlee upon turning around. Since the Rhyferno took quite a while to turn around, not being a very agile Natrelmon, and also wasted the time to fire the Singe Bullets, Omutiel still had quite some time before the Natrelmon would be able to turn again even once she was hovering about five feet above the ground next to Ashlee. Omutiel used some of this time to fire four Seed Bullets straight at the Rhyferno. It would most likely be unable to dodge, since it would have to wait for Ankio to warn it about the attack, at which point the seeds would be only a few feet away, not enough time for a large Natrelmon such as Rhyferno to get going. These seeds would deal a decent amount of damage, but they would not incapacitate the Natrelmon alone. Omutiel and Ashlee remained on the lookout for attacks.

All four seeds impacted on Rhyferno, causing it to roar. As it finished turning around, it once again launched the cross-pattern Singe Bullets at Omutiel. Then heat began to collect around it.. (Heat Rush, not its Innate.)

~Such an agile bird.~ Thought Ankio.

"Blow them away, Omutiel," said Ashlee calmly. She seemed strangely serious in this battle, acting almost nothing like she usually did.

Since the Singe Bullets were fired by so far away and thus had already lost quite a bit of their momentum by the time they approached Omutiel, she was able to blow them in the opposite direction just by using the Wind Innate. Omutiel then dropped a few more seeds into the ground and waited for Rhyferno to make another move, ready to dodge or react at any time.

Expecting Rhyferno to advance, Ashlee slowly moved out from behind Omutiel.

However, fearing the same thing would befall Rhyferno as it did Grianos, Ankio ordered Rhyferno to simply stand there and continue using Heat Rush. Flames flickered across Rhyferno's back. Soon enough, the heat would be so great that it could probably repel most of the damage from an aerial attack.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I don't think I'll be falling for that ploy again." commented Ankio, slightly grinning as he did.

"I'm not going to try the same trick twice," said Ashlee calmly. "Omutiel, land."

Omutiel obeyed, touching down on the ground as she continued to drop seeds and prepared to defend. They were getting quite concentrated, now. Rhyferno would have to do a lot of damage very suddenly to be able to beat her, since otherwise the seeds would heal her pretty quickly.

"Incinerating Stampede, now!" Ordered Ankio. As the Omutiel began to land, Rhyferno charged forward, reaching top speed in a little less than three seconds. Fire frothed from its horn and hooves. It let out a shocking battle cry and intended to ram Omutiel head on. This, combined with Heat Rush, would deal great damage if Omutiel couldn't find a way to lift off the ground fast enough.

Rhyferno would most likely careen directly into the cave's wall if it was dodged, however..

"Um... wow," said Ashlee, as she saw the Rhyferno charge straight forward with total disregard for the pool of water directly in front of it. What is with this Arena Master? Is he just really out of focus, or is he always like this?

When Ankio recalled the Rhyferno, which he would undoubtedly do, Ashlee would recall her Omutiel and then wait to see what Natrelmon he would send out.

"Well that was.. unexpected. I couldn't see the pool from here." Ankio did as Bree said, because he always had to do what Bree said. For some strange reason, he felt insulted, and hesitated to release Wune. He got over the feeling however, because it was replaced by the fear of an ass-whooping.

"Alright Wune, come on out." However, Wune was accidentally released into a pool of water. It thrashed around a bit, but kept its head above water and would not die until after my next post, in which I'll withdraw it. This is just for teh lulz. Ankio was too busy facepalming himself over Rhyferno and now Wune to recall him at the moment.

Ashlee called out Crowire just as she saw Wune being summoned. She started to laugh a bit when she saw the Wune fall into the water. Is he taking this seriously? Is he just toying with me? Does he think he can beat me with his last Natrelmon?

Ankio recalled Wune and then released Kaiguard. Kaiguard roared and shot an Aqua Shot at Crowire.

Joe stopped caring about this battle after the above comment.

The Kaiguard was called out behind some stalagmites only about fifteen feet in front of Crowire and just to her left, hoping to take advantage of the cover they would provide.

"Approach!" shouted Ashlee immediately as the Natrelmon was called out. Crowire began to quickly fly towards Kaiguard as the Natrelmon was called out. Since turtles couldn't raise their heads very high, Crowire was out of the range of the Natrlemon very soon, causing the Aqua Shot to pass beneath her. As she flew overhead, Crowire expanded the shadows cast by both the stalagmites and Kaiguard and compressed them into Dark Blades, sending them flying at the turtle Natrelmon. Some would be weakened greatly by Kaiguard's shell, but the majority were aimed for the Natrelmon's unprotected legs. The attack would probably do quite a bit of damage, though not necessarily enough to take Kaiguard out of battle. Kaiguard would also be unable to attack Crowire effectively, since it wouldn't be able to see her.

Just in case, Ashlee remained ready to protect Crowire, though she was fairly certain she had this Arena battle in the bag.

Kaiguard was withdrawn. "Eh. You win. Good job. I lose. Sob sob." Joe quietly giggled because of the rhyme. Ankio threw Ashlee all her winnings CUZ HE WAS JUST THAT GOOD. And then he sat down and went to sleep.

The door behind Ashlee opened. Now she could leave.

Ashlee took her rewards and left.

Good, leave then! Don't even say good-bye!