Lancaster: School of Battle (Rev)

[Kansas]

The sun shown beautifully through the blue skies as small puffy white clouds drifted carelessly above. The school of Lancaster stood proudly with its gorgeous Victorian buildings with Roman style Colosseum in the center of campus. Lengthy fields separated the campus from a wall of trees which form a forest which makes up the outer perimeter of the campus. The sidewalks of the campus intertwined themselves through the brick buildings littered through the center of campus all encompassed by the large 3-winged dormitories on the east and west ends of the campus. The wind blows softly, causing gentle ripples through the long green grass, completing the welcoming aura that the school gives. The entire campus is a bustle with new arrivals and returning students for on this beautiful summer day, the Lancaster school of battle would be starting the first term.

Alexndra Rose, a beautiful mint haired girl walked slowly through campus staring with her neck craned backwards, looking up to the tall buildings. Her over sized dagger bounced loosely against her thigh, reflecting light brightly off the blade as she walked down the sidewalk, catching the attention of many male students but remaining oblivious to the fact. She glanced down to a piece of paper that she held crumpled in her hand and unfolded it silently and scanned it once over again.

"hmpf... Combat 101, Defensive Magics and Illusions 102, and covert tactics 101... a pretty basic schedule I guess..." Alex said quietly to herself as she checked the paper and scoffed at her mediocre performance when displaying her talents to apply for Lancaster a few months ago.

As she looked around the campus, she could see that everyone had their own unique looks to them, yet appeared much like any other person, it was almost like being in a completely different world than back in London. She quickly snapped back to attention upon the arrival at a particularly gloomy building which contained her first class. Alex had heard her parents talk about combat classes, especially Combat 101, the starting combat course for all freshmen that used close ranged weapons at Lancaster. The teacher was a student they had attended classes with at Lancaster in their earlier days and he was known as a horrifically strong man who taught with an iron fist. Alex could only hope that it would be a bit easier to deal with since all the other close combat freshman would be in it as well. She stepped into the building which turned out to simply be one single gigantic room. The room was dimly lit and she could see other students who had arrived, sitting quietly in the corner. The quiet made her uneasy as she stepped farther inside. Suddenly her eye caught sight of a small gleam of light fast approaching, an attack. She did what she was taught when facing an oncoming attack and thats defend and think of a counter plan. Waved her arm in a semi circle in front of her, tracing an invisible wall in front of her.

"My hand guides this frozen sheet of security, Ice Wall!" She quickly spouted, reciting the incantation for her most common spell.

Immediately, a sheet of ice formed between her and the attack as she slipped her dagger from her thigh holding it broad side out in a defensive stance. A massive fist shattered the ice and connected with the thin girl's weak defense, pushing her back just from the force of the hit.

"A...single punch? And no weapon? not good" Alex thought through serious eyes as she prepared to defend her life.

A laugh broke through the tense moment. A belly laugh, full of enjoyment and pleasure.

"gwahahaha if you weren't able to block or avoid that punch, I woulda had to send you back to where you came from! Wonderful wonderful! Very quick witted too! By your reaction time and the way you reacted I assume you're a ninja?" He commented through heavy chuckles.

Alex could do nothing but respond with a slight nod of confirmation at the large man's assumptions.

"Go take a seat with the others and wait for the other students to arrive. I'm your teacher, Bardok Stonehide. Welcome to Combat 101, Freshy. Be sure to keep quiet when I give the signal so that I can surprise the next student who enters." He said happily as he ushered Alex over to the other group of students.

Alex walked over to the other group of students who began talking happily again after the encounter was over and some giggling softly at the humorous antics of their teacher who was definitely enjoying the act of assaulting his students by surprise. Alex scanned the group and noticed a few with bruises, black eyes, and cuts, who clearly didn't avoid the blow with as much grace as Alex had. She let out an exhausted sigh as she plopped against the wall and slid down slowly, waiting for the class to start.

"Class hasn't even started and my hearts pounding already...what else can this guy have in store for us..." Alex thought to herself with a shade of worry.

Her thoughts were once again cut short as the group of students returned to silence, noticing Professor Stonehide's hand raised into the air, signaling the arrival of another student. The professor resumed his original hiding spot which was much more obvious from inside the building watching through eyes adjusted to the darkness. Alex watched in slow anticipation as the next victim to the Professor's ambush stepped through the door.

 

[Scarlet Weather]

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The silver surface of the oddly-shaped pistol reflected the brilliant sunlight as the gun's barrel tapped repeatedly against the hard white stone of the campus walls. The gun's owner, a tall, pensive-looking youth leaned against the school's side, his eyes completely shut as his blonde hair rustled slightly in the breeze. His appearance wasn't particularly impressive. Aside from the large cape fastened to his shoulders by a small, silver chain, he could have been an ordinary college student at any other small university. Even the cape, while certainly far out of the ordinary as far as college attire went, might not have marked him as someone who wasn't quite average. What did make those who took a long enough look at Mark Hobbes decide that this wasn't an ordinary kid was the fact that every person who walked past him felt a strange tingling pulling at their hair, and other small objects. It was as if he was generating some form of static electricity that caused objects to gravitate towards him. As a matter of fact, that explanation wasn't far from the truth. A close look at the fingers Mark had curled around his pistol's silver handle brought the truth to light. Small sparks of electricity were playing across the weapon's surface, finding and sealing miniscule dents and scratches. An alchemic weapon had to be upkept often in order to maintain maximum efficiency, and no person on campus knew that better than Mark.

Well, perhaps one other.

The moment that Mark sensed the shuriken hurtling towards him, he whirled and pulled the cape that was draped around his shoulders over his face while sending a jolt of electricity through it, causing the refined metal fibers that made up the garment to stiffen slightly and creating a small electrical field around himself. The throwing star glanced off the cloak, leaving not so much as a dent. Before the shuriken's owner could launch a second throwing star, Mark had already leveled his pistol. "Bite, Wolfsbane" he muttered as he depressed the gun's trigger. A bullet of solid, compressed wind streaked through the air and onto the school's roof. The hurler of the shuriken, a tall youth dressed completely in black, was unable to dodge or even see the lightning-fast bullet and was immediately bowled over by the gust of wind that was released as the bullet suddenly "exploded" in mid air. With a cry of shock and anger, he was tumbled from his perch atop the school and slid to the bottom of the roof before coming to rest before Mark's feet. Before he could scramble to his feet, the mystery antagonist found himself staring down the barrel of Mark's pistol. "Gotcha," the blonde-haired boy smirked.

The mystery antagonist picked himself up, brushing off the dirt from his fall, before removing the black mask that obscured his lower face and removing the cowl that obscured his shock of brilliant red hair. "That you did, Mark. That you did," he replied, his Irish brogue betraying his country of origin moreso than the red hair had, "But I'm a bit surprised that you caught me so quickly. How did you do it?"

Mark shrugged. "I just figured you'd pick now to attack me. I'm usually alone at this time of day, so I figured that to draw you out I'd stand in a secluded area and act nonchalant. Two and two make four."

The Irishman grinned as he bent down to retrieve his shuriken. "You're learning fast. Remember, when you get to Elemental Control, Kirabayashi is going to attack you the moment you walk through the door, so be ready with that cape of yours." He paused, eyeing the heirloom garment enviously. "You sure I can't borrow it to test on it?"

Mark wasn't fooled. If anyone on campus proved his personal philosophy on human nature well-founded, it was Ed O'Malley. The only other alchemist in the school that Mark had actually met, Ed had met Mark on his first day in Britain, and after pretending to befriend the freshman the more experienced alchemist had proceeded to steal and copy all of his personal information for future reference. He had been caught by Mark while trying to return it, and, at gunpoint, had proceeded to explain himself. Ed was an alchemist, but a poor one in terms of money. He was the first Alchemist in his family, and as such didn't have the resources of a family vault as Mark did. He was reduced to stealing material from other Alchemists to build his creations, therefore, and Mark was the first Alchemist he'd met with material to spare. Though it went against his better judgement, Mark had offered him a share in his own materials. His initial suspicions were confirmed when he discovered that Ed was neither poor nor in desperate need of materials. In fact, he had gained a reputation as both an underground arms dealer and information network around the school. His training as a ninja had supplemented his impressive Alchemic skills, giving him free reign as the school's unchallenged freebooter and go-to man for help in anything that needed to go under the school's nose. Though he didn't want to be a party in Ed's schemes, Mark had nevertheless befriended the untrustworthy Irishman in hopes that he could make use of his connections someday. His answer to Ed's question was short and sweet. "No."

Undaunted by his companion's silence, Ed launched into another stream of conversation. "You know, that was pretty impressive, chanelling lightning through the cape like that to shut down my control over that shuriken. I remembered how you'd shot down my last one with those pistols of yours-"

"Wolfsbane," Mark interjected.

Ed continued, oblivious of Mark's comment. "Right, that, the last time I tried that you shot the shurikens with your pistols, so I made this batch extra-resistant to wind. Call 'em windcutters. I need to make a successful test, though, so if you wouldn't mind taking a shot at them next time I try this so I can decide whether they're ready to market to the rest of the student body. What do you think, they look good?"

Mark didn't like being patronized. "You're two years my senior, Ed," he pointed out, "Shouldn't you know enough about alchemy to evaluate your weapons yourself by now?"

Ed smiled. "Yes, but this way it's easier and I have an excuse to have some fun with them," He replied. "Anyway, got to run, class and all that. Shouldn't you be getting on towards ranged combat?"

Mark nodded. "And then Close Combat next period."

Ed was shocked. "You took both? Why on earth are you in close combat?"

Mark shook his head. "Ranged combat is all well and good, but if I can't block a sword-stroke somebody is going to kill me someday," he explained. "Anyway, I'm only taking it for half a period. The other half is philosophy."

Ed made a face. "I really don't understand you at all."

"Don't try then," Mark replied curtly. "And please don't throw another of those pointy little stars at me. I'm going to be busy for a while." With that, he began walking away, careful to keep Ed in his peripheral vision. "I'll e-mail you about that shuriken later," he called over his shoulder as he left.

The senior alchemist smiled. Mark Hobbes. He was up-tight, true, but he'd be fun to mess with later in the year.

 

[Loki]

Rubber soles beat rhythmically against the ground, sounding out the even beat of music that blared at full blast out of a pair of headphones sitting around a young wizard's neck. His cyan glasses were pushed all the way up on the bridge of his nose as he examined his surroundings in silence, barely even noticing that his precious mp3 player was dangling dangerously out of his back pocket. Man, there were some serious weirdo's walkin' round. Some people dressed in furs- Locke wondered what the PETA enthusiasts would say- some dressed entirely in patent leather – PETA! PETA!- and others dressed as if they were going to a boarding school, or some kind of CEO meeting. The feeling of being underdressed hardly affected the bespectacled teen's mind, as he was solely focused on figuring out just where he was supposed to go. Unwilling to ask others for help, he ripped out a GPS and pinpointed his current location. "Start". The beginning of a thrilling maze, Locke supposed, standing up from the bench and beginning to wander about. What building looked as if it would contain a ranged combat 101 class? Locke stopped walking and peered around, his sharp gaze sliding back and forth ever so slowly. Pretty much every building, in Locke's honest opinion. Well, might as well pick a place and start. Wandering aimlessly for a good ten minutes, Locke was lucky enough to discover the right building on his second try. Upon opening the door, he was greeted with an explosion, smoke and debris avoided by summoning a torrent of wind to redirect the trajectories of the flying objects. He wasn't interested in getting a single speck of dust on his clothes first few seconds of class.

His first impression of Professor Kiki Kiribayashi was: Nerd. He certainly wasn't about to compliment her on her fashion choice- nor was he about to mention her horrid glasses. But, Locke supposed, behind the computer screen, what you looked like didn't really matter. A torrent of icy water plagued by electrical currents running through it was hurled at the wizard who, instead of using his magic to deter the powerful spell, decided to use his magic to relocate himself and dodge, Locke deducted that this and the explosion were not coincidence at all. A very displeased expression crossed Locke's already irritable face when he landed right in a bubble of water. Wonderful.

"If you dodge, at least watch where you're going." The Professor chided as a soaked Locke examined his headphones and mp3 player dejectedly. His GPS was bust, but there wasn't any use for that right now anyway. He could fix it later. The mp3 player, being his all important catalyst, was of course- water proof, "Over there boy, out of the way."

Locke glanced at the other students, some with soot blackened faces, others with hair standing on end and others, the same as him- soaked to the bone. Only a handful were completely spotless, as Locke had hoped to leave this class as. Too late for that though. Sitting down indifferently, he decided to quietly join the audience as they waited for the next victim. In the meantime, Locke proceeded to pull his GPS apart and dump out all the water sloshing about inside, whipping a tech kit complete with a wild amount of various sized screw drivers, pliers, and tweezers out of his backpack.


---------------------------------------------------------------


Confidence was something most people didn't have on the first day of school. Confidence, was something Kai didn't really have in the first place. And thus, the only thing keeping him from shuffling around like a spineless mouse was samurai pride. His eyes were, as usual, affixed to the ground, which didn't help the fact that he was lost, and too afraid to ask someone for directions. He wondered if the layout of the other schools his brother's had attended were less complex. Maybe looking up would help a little… Kai's eyes immediately shot back to the ground. No. That didn't help at all. It was all he could do to keep his knees from knocking together, his shoulders from quaking, and when he finally found his classroom, the thought of his uncle's fury was the only thing that kept him from running away from the building that vaguely reminded him of a building that would surely one day become a haunted house. Trembling freely, Kai scuttled over to the door as silently as he could, before slowly opening it, taking slow, unsure steps into the classroom. His stuttering inquiry as to whether he was in the right place was quickly interrupted by a frighteningly large fist that was being hurled at him.

A thousands thoughts ran through Kai's brain- none of them helping him in the least. At the very least, he pulled his sheathed katana around his back and blocked the punch as best as he could, before lifting his feet off the ground, releasing the pressure build up against his sheath. (He was not about to break it the first day.) After flying back a few feet, Kai felt his feet touch-down on the ground once more, skidding to a stop as he took the moment to draw his sword. At the sight of his assaulter though, Kai hesitated. My goodness, he was… humongous! His left hand shook so hard that he nearly dropped his sheath to the ground, but after a bit of comedic yelping and scrambling to try and catch it before it hit the floor ended in a clumsy save. Sighing in relief, Kai suddenly realized once more that he was in the middle of battle.

Battle?

He peered up at the huge man, who was no longer attacking him. Thank goodness. Kai's eye glanced over at the rest of the class and he moved towards them- away from the mad, frightening, and hostile man before anyone could say anything, trying not to show his desire to practically sprint out of the room. He'd attempted to say something to introduce himself, but upon opening his mouth, he'd realized nothing would come out, as Kai was scared out of his wits. Thus, left with little choice, he sat down with disappointment, almost embarassed for himself for the first time in ages.

 

[parallelzero]

It was apparent by the sound that she overpacked. The sound of her absurdly large suitcase grinding across the pavement. She, the one from a far away land where it was cold most of the year. She, the one who seemed to be dressed for the middle of a winter day. She, the one with extremely white skin. She, the one carrying a blue parasol in one hand to shield herself from the sun, while dragging the absurdly large suitcase in the other. Her name was Meredith Aluto - although she went by Meredii - and she was wondering why the hell she decided to place her Claymore amidst her clothing baggage. She had been late arriving, so she hadn't yet had the chance to drop off her clothing wherever it was supposed to go. She only had one choice, and that was to push ahead to her first class: close combat.

She paused for a moment, as she had multiple times before on her long haul towards the meeting place for all the freshmen, and let go of black handle, soaked with the girl's sweat, dropping the six foot suitcase abruptly onto the ground. She adjusted the white strap around her shoulder, which was attached to the longsword wrapped in black cloth on her back, without even so much as budging the protective parasol in her left hand. With her white complexion, the last thing she wanted to do was burn, especially on her first day. Another bead of sweat rolled down her petite nose, and swayed side to side as she looked around her to raise awareness of the people and things around her. She didn't want anyone sneaking up on her, no. Especially not any guy. When she was assured that no such thing would happen, she bent down for her suitcase once more and shuffled her overly warm snow boots along their way.

She glanced up a few moments later, and realized she was almost at her destination. Out of happiness, she playfully spun her parasol in the air with her free hand. It was about time. She was completely exhausted, and she had only been dragging it for a few minutes! Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a tap on the shoulder. "AHHHH!" She shrieked in suprise as her hair practically stood on end, before she began to run screaming, her large suitcase flailing behind her. In her dust was left a poor, innocent boy who was only going to ask Meredii if she wanted help carrying her suitcase.

She continued to run, not looking back. Eventually, her destination came into view. The building wasn't as bright and exciting as she had expected it to be, but it was quite large. At first, she poked her head in and noted that everyone was sitting quietly in the corner. They all seemed to be avoiding eye contact with the door for some reason... but why? Meredii was quick to have her answer as she noticed a fist flying at her from the opposing side of the room. Her hair stood on end as she paniced. Having no other plausible option, she took hold of her suitcase with both hands and whipped it up into the air on a slight angle. There wasn't much time left... In one swift movement, her right hand flew back and took hold of the cloth covered blade on her back and brought it out front. The cloth dropped to the floor as she shook the blade down, revealing the clean, white, curved longsword. Moments before impact, Meredii quickly and graceful spun around the the attack, brushing the tip of her blade off of the floor around the man as she did so, which would freeze his shoes to the floor. It was only one 'dance' move, but one was enough as she lifted the tip of the blade up and pinned it to the man's back, sending a cool blast down his back. She threw her free left hand into the air and caught the suitcase, a true testament of her speed and strength. Though, Sword Dancers were rare. He probably wasn't expecting her to move like that... Without saying a word, she dropped her guard and walked over to the others while wrapping the longsword in it's cloth again. She took a seat, before opening the suitcase and placing her parasol inside it.

 

[Ninetales1]

Nim woke up in her mother's house, which was basically a spare room in the Temple of Darkness. She still felt dizzy when she did, but not as dizzy as she was the night before. The night before when she was attacked, she felt so dizzy that her legs felt like spinning tops, and the thunderbolt spear she fired at the wizard managed to take on the shape of a pig with a long curly tail instead of the classic, erm... spear-shape. The night before, she and Lilice had wandered out of town for a while, as a little pre-first-day-of-school outing. Somewhere along the way, they met up with a man who turned out to be a wizard (Lilice identified him as one)--this wizard traveled around with them for a while. But even further along the way, the wizard suddenly started attacking the mother and daughter, under a condition both Lilice and Nim recognised as being possessed by some sort of evil presence. Although they had no clue what that evil presence was, they soon found themselves in a fight against the wizard. Both Lilice and the wizard seemed to be very skilled with various types of magic, and the wizard even managed to use more dark magic than Lilice normally did. But for some odd reason, the wizard was mainly interested in attacking Nim--maybe she was an easy target or "easy prey" if he really was possessed. Whatever it was, Nim had managed to immobilise the wizard with her vine spell, but then the wizard used a different ability to throw her into the dizzy fit Nim was thinking about the next morning. Then Nim accidentally summoned the thunder pig, which finished off the wizard by stamping on his head repeatedly and electrocuting him with every stomp. Hee hee--it was an accident, but at least it was a fortunate one!

An hour or two later, Nim was flying above the countryside, held up by the raven named Katea who lived near the Temple of Darkness. Lilice had somehow infused her with some sort of wind magic that allowed her to support her in flight. Nim kept switching arms to hang by--for it ached a bit after a while of dangling from a raven's leg by one arm. Fortunately, she did not have any baggage with her--all that had been shipped to Lancaster a few days earlier. And whenever she got the chance, she helped Katea out with the flight, by emitting a magnetic force off of her ring--causing her to "bounce" off things like trains or telephone wires or even a lake (the lake took two or three tries to get right). This was a spell she tried to use quite often, as she was eager to master it. This was one of those abilities that could be very embarrassing if it starts to work then fails, as is what usually happened in the past. In fact, the first time she used it on the lake, the electric force cut right through the water and killed a fish. The second time, it moved the water instead of causing pressure against it (as was intended), giving the appearance of a large invisible object landing in the water and causing a splash. Nim kept thinking about this ability as she flew on, and came across the fact that this "spell" had no proper incantation. To use it, sometimes she mentally said the incantation (which was only two words anyway), as it sounded awkward when spoken. Picturing its intent seemed to work as well--Lilice even mentioned that this technique works with pretty much any spell. In her mind, all an incantation did was help focus the intent of the spell, so why not just focus it another way? Not to mention that speaking it aloud has the danger of giving away battle plans. This was something else Nim wanted to work on... probably not in class, but in her spare time.

Speaking of class, once Nim arrived on the campus of Lancaster, she landed right near the building where the Ranged Combat class was. As Katea flew away, Nim pulled out her schedule and checked it. She saw the following classes:
-Ranged Combat
-Elemental Control
-Healing Magic
Ah, so this covered all the basics that went with her abilities and such. Yet out of all of these, the Elemental Control class took up the most time--she had it for two hours everyday except Fridays, and apparently had it twice on Wednesdays. She was only in Ranged Combat on Monday afternoons, like this one. Healing Magic was a small class that was held on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and lasted about an hour. As Nim looked at her schedule, she kept wondering why the faculty stringly recommended the Ranged Combat class for her--she wasn't a Ranger, and the only use she could see for that class was bettering her aim for her lightning spears. Well, it was only on Mondays, so apparently it wasn't nearly as important to her as Elemental Control was.

Fortunately, Nim had a map of the campus that she could read fairly easily, so she had no trouble finding her classroom. As she approached the building, she glanced at her ring, knowing that some of its Essence might soon be called upon. Holding the ring close to her lips, she spoke to it:
"Get ready, Sensaori."
Ohh, just in time. For at that moment, something silver shot at her from the side--an arrow, with a streak of wind in its wake.
And from wind we get thunder, Nim thought.
The arrow stopped once it got within a few inches of Nim's shoulder. As Nim twirled her right index finger around (the one with the ring), so did the arrow twirl around, and fly straight up into the air. Then Nim released control of the arrow, which fell straight down and landed in front of a student holding a bow.
Tch, I haven't even walked into class, and already I'm being given a pop quiz.
A few seconds later, another student tried to do the same thing, as if it were a trend to fight fellow students before walking into a classroom. This student threw a fireball at her. Uh-oh, that vine spell was Nim's primary form of defense, and it would be no good against fire... Thinking quickly, Nim summoned the arrow from before back to her, just before the other student was about to pick it up. Then she shot the arrow straight through the fireball, causing it to hit a tree in the distance. What was once a fireball was now a smoke ring that blew over Nim. (It was the wind resistance caused by the flying arrow that put the fire out.)

At that moment, the door to the classroom opened, and some students started to file in through the doorway. Nim waited for the other students to enter, so as to avoid crowding.