Old Friends - A Mirina Adventure

[Trunks]

The smirk turned to a full on smile as the links appeared around him. Trunks clenched his fists and held his arms close to his chest as he concentrated. The aura around him began to flare pushing against the magic ring of blades. As more ki encircled the Saiyan his biceps bulged. With a strong push Trunks extended his arms out to the side releasing the energy around him. Hopefully, this would expel the ring.

[Dota]

Trunks had managed to crush Blu's weak façade at being the better person in a matter of seconds. With this out of the way, Dota silently slid back into a more readied stance. It would have been a great moment to capitalize on Trunks's vulnerable position, but the lash knife was a wild card she didn't want to divide her attention away from. Fortunately for her, Blu's target (understandably) was the saiyan, and the links reappeared already closing in. Trunks responded with a wave of energy, and Dota began to fall back from both it and what she expected to be the chain links. At the last possible moment, she became aware of the rogue piece which was near the end of its mission. She arched back in the kind of close call that left strands of her purple hair severed, but had no further allotment for action. The foot-long blade sank with a thunk into the ice of her left arm and she winced and recoiled in pain. It managed to protrude through the opposite side of her arm, yet did not complete the journey through. Her reaction hinted that this arm wasn't just some tied-on sculpture, but instead an integrated and functioning appendage.

Dota's immediate thought was can he detonate these things? followed by how strongly can her recall them?. Taking care to not grab the blade on the end, she gripped the link and readied to (try to) rip it out. She really didn't want to have to lose her arm again, though it was already significantly battered from Trunks. But before this, she turned her attention to Blu and Trunks to evaluate the overall battle situation.

[Sakabatou]

Trunks wasn't the only one smiling as he repelled Blu's attack. Despite Blu's display of affected protest, really going all out with these two never failed to get his blood pumping and his adrenaline racing. The hilt of the lashknife was in Blu's right hand as he dashed toward the saiyan in an all-out sprint. The deflected chain links reassembled en-route, the triple-clawed weapon streaming behind the speeding mage like a strange sort of tail. Dota might find herself with some assistance clearing her own injury as Blu threw moved his off hand in a swiping gesture, magically commanding the final link to back out of Dota's arm the way it had gone in, and return to its place in the chain. Though if Dota refused to relinquish it, her strength would be more than enough to resist the summoning.

As Blu closed on Trunks, he jumped into the air in a forward flip. Taking his eyes off of his opponent like that was a risky move, but for Blu, showmanship was everything. He came down above the saiyan's head, completing the flip as if to slam his heel into the top of Trunks's skull. But at the last moment, a burst of kanji light would propel Blu unnaturally to the side, his over-the-head kick transforming in an instant into a spinning roundhouse aimed at Trunks's ribcage, instead.

[Trunks]

With the blades repelled Trunks prepared for the assault from Blu. The mage was running straight at him. What a fool. Trunks crossed his arms above his head to block this very simple attack, but it didn't come. Instead he left himself wide open for Blu to nail him in the side. He could feel not only his ribs bend close to the point of breaking, but the earlier stab wound from Dota was most definitely bleeding again.

Gritting his teeth, the Saiayan fought through the pain. The aura around him picked up as he leapt at his attacker. There was no fancy footwork nor ki blast. Trunks was going for his throat. If he managed to get a hold of him the mage would be on his back and into the earth. If Trunks misses him, however, it's not going to end well for the Saiyan Prince.

[Dota]

As expected, the link came to life while Dota was trying to remove it. She yanked in the same direction it was tugging then immediately released it. There was no way she'd try to keep a volatile magic item under an opponent's control.

Blu must have felt confident that he would keep Dota at bay. Trunks just lived in the moment and would only be concerned once Dota was in his face again. So while those two had a reprieve from her, she had the same from them and could take the moment to tend to her arm. It looked awful: cracked, melted, a hole bored into it. But new ice began to weave through the imperfections as a small glowing aura of snow enveloped her arm. It wasn't as easy as slapping an ice cube into the gaps -- she needed this to be reinforced and functional. But with Blu and Trunks wailing on one another, she'd have the time to do that.

[Sakabatou]

With most of his opponents, Blu was used to using his superior speed and reaction time to gain an advantage, when he often fell short in raw strength. But that had always been the one problem he ran into when fighting Trunks--the saiyan was too strong and too fast. 『Wait. Does that count as one problem or two?』 This thought went through Blu's mind as Trunks barreled him over with his lightning-strike of a rebound.

Fortunately, Blu had at least gotten one arm up before impact, so instead of his neck, Trunks's outreaching hand clamped around the kanji mage's wrist. That arm was forced rudely into Blu's face, the elbow jamming into his chest, as he collapsed backward onto the ground.

The offensively powerful warrior pinning him to the ground was certainly an immediate concern, but another worry running through Blu's mind was just how big and inviting a target they were making for an ice goddess that might be starting to feel a little neglected. Unsure what Trunks's next course of action was going to be, Blu struggled to flip around in a way that would leave the saiyan's back to Dota. At the same time, Dota had so conveniently released the missing blade-link from Blu's lashknife. The mage wasn't actively controlling it at this point, as distracted as he was, but since the command to return had already been given, it would be flying at Trunks nonetheless.

[Trunks]

Blu's positioning did not go unnoticed, but Trunks felt he had the upper hand. With one hand around the mage's wrist and the other being used as support that only left his legs to do the fighting. Trunks lifted his leg and knee away from Blu's body and with thrust he was going to hit Blu's most prized possessions.

That was the intended target until a sharp pain ran through the Saiyan's back. The lash knife was looking for its missing link and Trunks was in the way. Trunks rolled off Blu and searched at the metal in his back eventually finding it. Angrily he threw it at Blu, while still on his back, knowing full well it would do little to nothing but return to its owner. Trunks stayed flat on his back, waiting for either Dota or Blu to eventually make their move.

[Dota]

While the other two tussled on the ground like children on a playground, Dota's arm mended. Her fingers curled and uncurled slowly as she tested the assembly. Light gleamed off of the ice. Satisfied, she looked up just in time to see Trunks make for a shot between Blu's legs. It seemed as though it was anything goes now. However, by some sort of divine intervention, Blu was sparred when the final lashknife link struck Trunks.

Ah...! That's actually probably my fault, isn't it?

The remaining granules of guilt from Dota's earlier attack stirred up as she watched Trunks continue to be the leading pin cushion of the battle. She saw him come to rest on the ground, and the usual instinct to end him with an ice spear from below struck her. No. Something that didn't involve more stabbing. So, Dota stuck out one foot and tapped her toes to the ground. A blanket of ice the span of her wings shot across the ground at the two other fighters, but it was just that: a blanket that coated the ground. It shot under Trunks, who had presented Dota with the gift of an opponent laying in a small pool of red liquid. If he took no action, the ice would predictably try to entomb him. Even if he did react, her hope was that there would still be a strong anchoring between the ice and the his wounded back.

Having determined Blu was likely a more lively target, Dota focused more of her efforts on the ice that approached him. She'd try to encase him as well, but unlike Trunks, if the mage tried to stand or leap away, she was ready to direct a snaking, jagged offshoot of ice after him.

[Sakabatou]

Blu was likely to have been a more lively target, as Dota was expecting, if he weren't sitting on the ground trying to stifle his chuckles. His final lashknife link indeed returned obediently to its place, and the look on Trunks's face was such a cross between anger and annoyance that Blu just couldn't contain himself. Were he not so caught up in the moment, he might have taken a moment to reflect on just what kind of person laughs about literally stabbing their friend in the back, but, well, Trunks had purposely antagonized him out of being his calm and considered self.

All of that is to say, Dota's extra attention was wholly unnecessary, as the unsuspecting kanji mage's ass found itself literally frozen to the ground. Blu squirmed in sudden panic as the crystalline prison encased his waist--Trunks's cheap shot would have probably been less likely to cause a permanent dysfunction.

"Hey! HEY! Whoa whoa this isn't fair!"

Blu's whining being unlikely as it was to intimidate the ice into retracting, he summoned a bevy of repeated kanji around himself--a half dozen each of "heat" and "shatter" spinning around the frigid crystals in an attempt to counter Dota's attack.

[Trunks]

The crackling ice always put Trunks on edge. What manner of death was coming for him. He just began floating off the ground when he felt the blood in his back run cold. His flight was stopped as the ice tethered him to the ground using his own fluids. He focused his ki into his fists and slammed them into the ground below. As the ice shattered he raced into the air.

It wasn't long at all that he let gravity take him back. Blu was recovering from being on the ground and that was a perfect opportunity to launch into his attack. With his right foot extended he dropped down on the mage aiming for his abdomen.