The outside perimeter of Supernova Arcade is, once again, incredibly busy. People are lined up outside of the arcade to enter inside, food trucks are located outside trying to make a quick buck on hungry guests, and lots of activity can be seen down the way towards the PRISM ARENAs. In fact, Supernova Guild has grown a little bit into its own little section of Fairview, one officially decreed by the city's government. In terms of new things to do, there's a new coffee shop about 500 feet west that's also rather busy, and there's what seems to be the makings of a small carnival-type setup in the far east. At least it's not completely taking over the city? Just about a twentieth or so. Walking down from the city, Viper notices that most of Nova's visible footprint had completely disappeared from the rest of the city, but then arriving on site, it's all Nova.
Viper steps into view wearing a black and green body suit with a sheath for her sword on one side and a sheath for her knife on the other, she's wearing her metallic respirator as she follows the signs as she heads towards the PRISM ARENA. The ARENA in the very middle of the three seems to be completely empty and a digital sign with both Viper Stryker and Hinata Solaire's names can be seen on them. Hinata and Luna have not arrived just yet but out of nowhere, she can hear screaming from the sky above her. It sounds familiar, almost catlike.
Viper reads the names and nods then seems confused as she hears the screaming and looks up, maybe it's just a weird bird or something
Might not be a bird per se, but you do notice hip-length black feathered wings swoop down rather rapidly towards your location. They're connected to a certain someone carrying a purple screaming blob down to the ground. It looks like they're about to crash, but they skid to a stop in midair and land rather gracefully. It's Hinata and Luna making one hell of an entrance. Luna looks totally shaken up by the experience, even tears threatening to fall. Hinata, on the other hand, appears normal, even smug about showing off like this.
"Barrel rolls. Why the hell did you do barrel rolls Hinata???" Luna glares at her gf, not even noticing Viper or her outfit quite yet.
Hinata also hasn't noticed Viper yet, "Because it sounded fun. Plus you were safe."
Viper watches the air show remaining confused then as they land and realizes who they are, snickers as she listens to them and looks between the two, waiting for them to notice her and her amazing outfit.
Luna still looks a bit dizzy but when she notices her other girlfriend not only watching them but also in that sick cosplay, she falls back out of overwhelm. Hinata smiles gently with her wings still out and about, "Whoaaaa, yo Viper, sick cosplay. See I told you we should've cosplayed out, but nooooo you didn't want to stand out."
"We already stand out Hinata. We're like the only animal people that exist here aside from like Spider and Elara." Luna sighs, "But yeah, cool cosplay. Not sure what anime it's from though."
Viper smiles as she responds, "I had a really bad Valorant addiction for a couple months and I got this during it, and oddly? It's kinda comfortable" she then gestures at Hinata's wings "If you were worried about sticking out, those aren't helping."
>ALAIS - If it's not clear, Viper is cosplaying 'Viper' from Valorant. I would not know, I do not play Valorant, but thankfully Krystal has.
Hinata still looks kind of confused about something, "Yeah, I get that. I'm still confused as to how I even have these. It's like I've always had them, but I didn't know I had them until super recently? The Naomis have been helping me a lot with this."
Luna gets up and brushes herself off from falling down, "Yeah, I still don't exactly trust them myself, but we'll manage I suppose. They're definitely cool. Soft too."
Viper nods along as they speak then asks Hinata, "Is there something wrong? You look confused, darling" she goes to rest her hands on her plate carrier and then realizes she isn't wearing it and rests her hands on her belt instead
Hinata shrugs off her confusion, "Nah, I'm fine. Should we get to training?" Luna nods, "please." They then enter the Arena and hold the door open for Viper.
Viper nods, "Definitely, I brought my knife and my sword" she flashes a smile at the two as they hold the door open for her as she steps inside
Upon stepping inside, you notice the insides of this Prism Arena resemble a classic martial arts dojo, even despite the clear glass casing that looked completely transparent from the outside. Dark brown wooden walls with rice paper windows surround off-white tatami mats with some sort of Kanji in the very center. It's very obviously a hologram of some sort, or some kind of augmented reality, but it feels real. Luna steps in and opens one of the windows and the soft floral scent of cherry blossoms add to the experience.
Hinata then smiles and asks, "so whatcha think? Pretty cool huh?"
Viper looks around in amazement as she responds, "Cool as fuck, I wish I had this kinda tech in my home, the things I would do with it...the things I would do..." the "things she would do with it" are put herself in random tv sets and pretend she's the director along with...other places
"Like what?" Luna asks, now curious about Viper's interests. Hinata, on the other hand, is listening to the conversation, but is mostly preparing to train with her girlfriends, stretching and the like
Viper notices Hinata stretching as she starts stretching and responds, "Tv sets and the like, then i'd probably see how far I can stretch the technology....then promptly break it most likely" she lets out a couple groans and other various stretching noises
"That would be really cool though. I wonder if these things can be broken somehow." Luna waves her hand and an augmented reality screen appears right in front of her. It seems to be a menu of sorts for the different configurations the Arena can set to, with what seems like another context sensitive free selection that the PortKey system has as well. "Uhmmmm... yeah it looks like it's secure. I think?"
Viper looks over at Luna as she finishes stretching and asks "Is there like a custom input box? If there is, i'd love to toy with this whole thing later if not...i'm gonna frown really hard at whoever made this and understand why they didn't include one"
"Actually yeah, how'd you know?" Luna points out the part that says ‘Context Sensitive Custom Input Menu’ at the very bottom of the screen.
Hinata is watching from afar while waiting very patiently, "I assume it's for custom battleground configurations, but who knows anymore."
Luna shrugs.
Viper smirks as she cracks her neck as she waves her hand dismissively, "We can nerd out after this, I'm sure Hinata's paitence can only be stretched so thin." She looks over at Hinata with a smug expression as she slowly wraps her fingers around her knife handle.
Luna nods and waves the screen away. "Right, so training. You wanted a place where you could go all out and not get hurt right? Well that's what The Cubes are for. Instead of taking physical damage, you lose Hit Points aka HP. Magic battles basically get boiled down to a video game, something we can do without losing mana or get really badly injured. Do you remember how to activate your knife?"
Hinata is watching with a soft smile and her wings have disappeared.
Viper nods as he unsheathes it and holds it out in front of her and presses the corresponding button to swap it to sword length, "I remember, I committed pretty much everything you said to memory." She focuses on the blade, and imagines the blade to be red while feeling the heat coming off of it.
[Viper’s Dagger of the Avatars is now in FIRE mode]
Luna claps and nods. "There ya go! So remember that part about how your sword will run out of mana pretty quickly? Not in here it won't. It's kind of like a simulation. Instead of Mana being drained and then having to wait 15 minutes or whatever, mana regenerates here pretty consistently. You can absolutely use it to your heart's content as long as a Battle is happening."
Viper nods as she gets into a defensive position "Got it, so...fire away at my hearts content, and I don't have to worry about hurting either of you."
Hinata has already started dancing and a yellow aura flares up around her. Above her are six orbs of inky black shadow spinning around her and giving off kind of a disco ball effect?
[RHYTHM RAMPAGE - self target - is now in effect.]
Luna then steps back to watch and referee the spar, "Yeah basically. The loser is the first to hit 0HP from 100. And you'd better start striking because..."
Hinata shouts, "SHADOW BLITZ!" as an orb of inky black shadow is launched directly at Viper's torso.
"...The match started five minutes ago!"
Viper nods to what's being said, "Got it" then looks over at Hinata as she stares then quickly aims to slice the orb heading for her torso "FUCK SHIT!"
Hearing Viper’s ad-lib causes Hinata to stumble out of her dance and the aura disappears with it. “Fuck was that Viper??"
[Shadow Blitz was successfully countered by the Blade. 100HP VIPER - 100HP HINATA]
Viper pauses for a moment as she answers, "Panic? I don't know what you expected me to say!" She then narrows her eyes as she waves her sword and confidently speaks, "FIRE BOLT!"
[Due to her stumbling out of her stance and groove, Hinata is caught off-guard. A quick moving bolt of flames strikes Hinata in the arm and instantly disappears dealing 9 damage. 100HP VIPER - 91HP HINATA]
"Huh, okay, okay, guess I'm still not at my best. Oh well," Hinata instantly returns to the groove and launches another Shadow Ball Blitz at Viper's left arm. She seems almost slowed down from the strike, but it shouldn't pose too much of an issue, right?
Viper attempts to quickly move to the right to dodge the orb, hoping it doesn't track as she waves her sword and speaks with confidence "FIRE THROW" she may have no idea what it's going to do but she is CONFIDENT that it's gonna do something
[Hinata's Shadow Ball Blitz does not have homing capabilities, so that misses. Viper's Fire Throw, an attack where she literally throws a volley of fireballs at Hinata also doesn't have homing. Hinata is just as easily able to sidestep the flames. 100 - 91 The Fire Throw seems to have an additional effect which causes the tatami mats near Hinata to burst into flame. Her movement radius on the ground is now much more limited. Hinata quickly swaps to Aquaphor and uses a Bubble to put out the flames. She is unable to attack Viper this turn.]
Luna is watching from the back of the Dojo while taking notes on how to finally BEAT Hinata.]
Viper notices that Hinata is preoccupied as she waves her sword and speaks, "FIRE BURST" with confidence in her voice, she notes that Hinata's priority is safe movement
Hinata smiles and casts Aquaphor Blast at the Fire Burst to put out the flames. "Didn't anyone teach you that water puts out fire? Try again Viper.
[The water puts out the fire. No damage is dealt. Next turn.]
Hinata uses Aquaphor Bubble and it launches directly from her hands to Viper's chest. "Take this! Aquaphor Bubble!"
Viper in the limited amount of time to think that she has decides the best course of action is to drop directly onto the floor to avoid the bubble, is it the smartest idea? Probably not, is it a good position to be in? Not in the slightest but she's doing it
[As much as that would usually be a poor call to make, the dodge absolutely works soaking Luna in the process. It seems like Viper got really really lucky there. The Many Gods of RNG will it.]
Hinata looks dismayed and blinks incredulously, "What the fuck just happened? How did you dodge that???"
Sopping wet from the spell, since she’s not in the battle, Luna sighs and mutters, "Welp, glad I brought a change of clothes. And thank the Gods I didn’t wear white today."
[With a vibration and aura enveloping her sword, she feels her blade is now BOOSTED and stronger spells can now be used!]
Viper laughs for a moment then refocuses herself as she images her blade to be green and feeling the wind coming off of it as she waves her sword and speaks, "WIND BURST" hoping it'll have the same basic effect as Flame Burst.
With a quick counter in mind, HInata launches another Aquaphor Bubble into the burst of heavy wind.
[With how dense and quickly shot it was, Hinata’s Aquaphor Bubble is able to outpace Wind Burst and land directly on Viper's right arm. It doesn't seem to affect her at all. it doesn't even feel wet, but the damage is still dealt. Hinata side steps the burst of wind and dodges successfully. 94 Viper - 91 Hinata]
Viper groans as she shakes her head and rolls as she quickly gets back onto her feet, imagining her blade to be blue and feeling the cold air coming off it as she waves her sword and speaks, "ICE VOLLEY" with confidence in her voice
Hinata smiles brightly, "I see you Viper--" She then swaps to her Light magic and quickly casts Shining Tempest directly at Viper's head. "But you won't see me!"
[Except she will. Shining Tempest, a beam of pure light energy, utterly fails to make its mark. Perhaps it's borne from a fear of hurting her love. The Ice Volley, 4 tightly packed ice-core snowballs, gets launched directly at Hinata and hit her square on dealing significant damage. 25 to be exact! 94V - 66H. I love watching Magic Battles.]
Hinata starts to look annoyed, "You know what? I'm tired of doing this on the ground. I have cool wings and I'm using them. Wings of Rebellion!!" She launches herself into the sky.
[With a vibration and aura enveloping her sword, Viper feels her blade is now BOOSTED and stronger spells can now be used!]
Viper watches as Hinata soars into the sky as she calls out, "Lotta good that light magic did you," teasingly as she imagines her blade to be red and feeling heat coming off of it! She waves her sword at Hinata and speaks "FIRE BLOOM" with confidence. She has no idea what it'll gonna do but with her confidence, she believes it’ll be beneficial.
Speaking of, even Luna has no idea what that attack will do, but when she notices the cherry blossom petals flowing into the arena, suddenly catching on fire, then being launched up at Hinata, she gulps, "Oh gods above, please tell me Pyra isn't getting ideas here."
Hinata looks incredibly confused and then she begins to dodge around the flaming flower petals casting another Shining Tempest at Viper in the process.
[Three of the flaming flowers manage to hit Hinata causing her to lose 9 HP. The Shining Tempest hits Viper as well for 20 and for the next two turns, she'll find it rather difficult to even know where Hinata is in the air, much less be able too hit her with spells. The Gods will a more difficult battle for Viper due to the BLINDED status. 74V -- INFLICTED WITH BLINDED - 57H]
"BOOM HEADSHOT!" Hinata cheers.
Viper blinks as she shakes her head and grumbles, "Fucker, I'm knocking you OUT OF THE SKY!!" She imagines her blade to be green with wind coming off of it as she waves her sword and speaks with confidence and determination, "WIND TUNNEL!" Despite her confidence, she has a feeling that her move will probably horribly miss but it's the thought that counts.
Hinata grins when Viper goes to cast, but when she realizes just how much of an AREA OF EFFECT this attack has, she panics and dives closer to the ground to atttempt to dodge.
[Getting down near the ground, and taking a page from Viper's book, works well enough and she dodges the Wind Tunnel. No damage is dealt this turn, so say the Many Gods of RNG.]
"Right, my turn. Take this!" She swaps back to Aquaphor and casts "Bubble Bullet Blast!" Six spinning Aquaphor Bubbles appear over her head but these are in that yellow aura that Viper noticed at the very beginning of the fight before it was so rudely interrupted out of nowhere. With a flamenco looking clap that causes Luna to shake her head with amusement, Hinata launches three of them at the still blinded Viper.
[Once again with vibration and a powerful feeling aura enveloping her sword, she feels her blade is now BOOSTED and stronger spells can now be used!]
Viper in her somewhat blinded state decides to sprint forwards for a moment then screeches to a halt, she points her sword in the vague direction of Hinata as she waves her sword and speaks, "WIND VACUUM" with confidence, silently hoping that it works.
[Viper is unable to dodge the Bubble Bullets and they all smack against her rather hard dealing a total of 17 damage. 57V - 57H.]
[While Hinata is hovering near the ground, she begins to feel herself get sucked in closer into range to Viper's blade. She doesn't have any way to stop this effect from happening, and the genuine stress and pain from the intense winds causes her to take 14 damage. 57V - 43H. Hinata is also now within Attack of Opportunity range, which allows Viper a free hit with advantage. VIPER STRYKER is no longer afflicted with BLINDED. When she next opens her eyes, she notices Hinata within 10 feet of her.]
"Uh oh." With an exaggerated hand motion, Hinata launches the other three bubbles and guides them with her hands. None of them seem to be moving towards Viper.
[Viper doesn't know what it means, but it's almost like Hinata can't escape. An Attack of Opportunity is available.]
Viper blinks as the blindness is lifted her eyes narrow and mutters, "Wings can't function without air, love" as she waves her sword and speaks, "WIND VOLLEY" with confidence dripping from her voice
[Being unable to dodge, Hinata is BLOWN BACK by the Wind Volley. She lands on her wings and they disappear.]
"Fuck! My flying buff!" Upon landing HARD on the ground, Hinata loses 19HP. She's looking worse for wear as the battle rages on, but somehow, that bright smile persists on her face. Or perhaps it's because her plan is in motion. [57V - 24H]
With an exaggerated grab from the sky, the other three Bubble Bullets combined with her Psychic Showdown giving them Homing capabilities, they SLAM into Viper. If this was a real fight, she'd probably have a broken neck. [All three connect and deal 42 to Viper. 15V - 24H]
"Damn Hinata!" Luna cheers.
Viper leans back slightly as she's smacked by the bubble bullets, realizing how close she is to losing she decides that if she wants to win she has to push herself as she enters a defensive stance, she imagines her blade to be blue with cold air coming off of it as she waves her sword and speaks with confidence "ICE SHIELD." Her face shows a side that Hinata and Luna have yet to see. She's not scared, she's not scared in the slightest. In fact, she only looks more determined. [ICE SHIELD DURABILITY - 60/60]
Hinata smiles brightly, "I see! Okay, then I might as well get serious too. Let's do this shit!" Hinata takes a moment to deep breathe as a golden aura overtakes her whole body. With a grunt and a wicked grin, Hinata enters an offensive stance with her Longsword out and lunges at Viper. This lunge is much faster than anything Viper's ever seen Hinata go, it's almost like she's unlocked a new level of strength since she's last sparred with them. "Take this! Sun of the Ancient Civilization! Solaris Slash!!" She's attempting to slash directly into the Ice Shield trying to break it.
[Viper, in her time of Determination, feels her weapon BOOSTED once more.]
Viper moves her shield backwards then shoves it forwards in an attempt shield bash Hinata, both as a way to damage her and get her to back the hell up.
Hinata attempts to break through the sword, but aside from a heavy slash mark on it, it stays intact though weakened. It appears, in this very specific scenario, the almighty power and heat of the Sun cannot easily melt ice.
[ICE SHIELD DURABILITY - 26/60]
With the shield still mostly intact, Viper gets a CLEAN SHOT on Hinata forcing her to fall back HARD. [Hinata loses 19HP. 15V - 5H]
With another beat back, Hinata looks totally winded and attempts to throw one last bubble bullet at Viper, but this one is so slow compared to all of the others that it just falls to the ground the moment it reaches Viper. "fuck.. i.. i'm done." Hinata looks tired.
Viper huffs and puffs beneath her respirator as she's drained of energy as she slowly pulls the shield back and smacks it into Hinata again, "Fucking...christ..." [Wow. That was kinda rude. You could've just let her concede... 15V - 0H]
A sparkle of some kind of magic wafts through the air as everyone in the room suddenly feels rejuvenated. Hinata gets up with her usual smile and says, "Good game Viper but I was going to conceeeeeede. You didn't have to shield bash me again..."
Luna shakes her head and looks through the logs of that battle. "Damn, that battle log is fucking sassy as hell. I wonder if that's Yuki's doing."
Viper shudders as she scratches the back of her head "I didn't know that was an option, i'm gonna be honest"
Hinata shrugs, finding it more funny than mean, "Nah it's fine, you didn't know. We never told you about that." She then pops out her wings again to make sure they're good, and as they're connected directly to Hinata's magic, they're safe.
"That was really cool Viper, I've never seen you look so..." Luna isn't sure of the words right now. "I guess determined? Maybe serious?? Kinda hot at that!"
Viper nods as she looks over at Luna as she takes her respirator off and raises her eyebrows "Oh I bet you did, I bet you did"
"Can I not admire the woman I love in a really cool costume kicking ass?" Luna asks with a slight smile
Hinata is too busy on the ground drinking her canteen to flirt right now.
Viper playfully rolls her eyes at Luna as she smirks, "You are certainly allowed to, I'm just allowed to tease you about admiring me" she turns slightly so Luna can get a good look at a majority of the costume
Luna's eyes glow that deeper shade of blue that seemingly shows her interest skyrocket, "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayum Viper, that's really awesome, just like you of course."
Hinata keeps sneaking peeks from behind her canteen, not trying to ogle but also very very much feeling very very gay right now.
Viper smiles a little wider as Luna mentions that she's awesome, "Not nearly as awesome as you, cutie" she subtly flexes her muscles which are average, nothing to sneeze at but they could use a better workout routine
Hinata finally gets up and walks next to Luna, "Oh dang, not bad. Mine aren't that great either." Her arm muscles seem average, but they could be better. "Never really knew how to work em out." Luna shrugs, "me neither."
Viper stops as she turns to face both of them and offers "We could go to the gym together when you two are free. I go to a gym where we'd have our own personal area to do whatever we'd want, no one oogling us or stealing equipment, but that's a later thing. For now, I wanna see if I can break this thing."