The swordsman would watch the various fires scatter through his brazen stare, the heat of the fight causing the panic to further into disarray with scorched streets and the screams ensued by burning skin. The strange girl had certainly proved her worth by assuming a certain level of vengeance against the a man who was unfortunate to hurdle his fireball her way, and though he wasn't born with a sense to judge things simply by his assumptions, he briefly wondered if her moral compass was slightly askew. Perhaps it bothered him, but he wasn't a man of idealistic thinking to force her to adapt a new lifestyle. His plans were but minimizing any sort of interaction with the girl, avoiding the process of association with a shady figure like her unless the situation beckoned him to propose a minor coup-de-etat. He'd play along then, but it wasn't necessary to feign camaraderie now. What mattered was the extinguishing of the fire fiends with minor casualties.
To him, why, was a tangible question in his head, floating amongst his thoughts. The answer, however, wasn't very clear. Terith just had a gut feeling that the possibility of coming to terms with her type of personality were slim, and he seemed to trust that notion with a click to his weapon, fixing into a familiar stance with one leg edged behind him, his arms in a rigid curve and his face devoid of any sort of expression but focus. His glare was intense as a crease formed over his brow, defining his targets and their locations across the open roads of the Oak Town markets. There had been a small group of men over to one corner that seemed to offer no repose for a local vegetable stand, their respective elements causing it to burst up in flames with nothing less than proud laughter bellowing from their stomachs.
A spur of magic engulfed his legs as he took his first initiative, the bounds of an activated Himizu pulling his body into a spontaneous dashing movement that had him effectively closed in on his target in a given second. In his head, he'd conjure several ghost copies of his etherblade with the help of the spirit Masamune, who seemed gleeful enough to provide five of them while they hovered over the group of boisterous fire mages. His weapon would curve back, a silent conversation composed of nods and hushed gestures as he called upon Hijikata's aid. The spirit was a common presence at Terith's Chronicle nowadays, since the swordsman saw his inspiration as something incredibly effective against crowds and scattered targets. It was just the condescending attitude of his that mainly had the (formerly) blonde traveler at the edge of his wits.
His backlash seemed to have been received nicely, in a sense that the sharp end of Yamanbagiri pierced through their thin clothing like a knife to paper almost immediately after the men felt a sharp sting slither up their backs after each one was punctured by the ghost copies. A bunch of flustered groans spun against his ear drums as his near-intangible figure jumped into the fray with as little sound as possible, where the only distinction of his attack was the specks of blue that outlined his swings. The blur of Hikijata's Hirazuki spun his figure around them decisively, sinking his blade into their skins with the element of surprise being his prime engagement against the flames that crackled at their fingertips. Had he not aimed the weaker blades at the group, then perhaps the Shinesungumi captain's effort would have all been in vain.
One of the men had tried to reach out at his invading tactic with a gush of flame from his right arm, the flourish spreading across a cone shaped area. His fellowmen seemed to take to his attack with the same instinct, bundling their sleeves and slinging their streams of fire at the swordsman, trying their best to sustain their injuries as they blindly chugged their spells at the area around them. The attack was surprisingly tailored to create a field of fire around them, rendering their surroundings impossible to penetrate with simple sword tricks alone, and inevitably trapping him in a whirlwind of fire. Clever of a strategy it was, it wasn't enough to project significant harm unto him (apart from being lightly scorched), not then, when he had been observant of their movements from the very beginning. His legs kicked off the pavement, wind gathering beneath his soles as he called out to Yasusada to manage the Threshold. The black-haired spirit spared him a gruff huff of amusement, sliding his hands into the spaces in his sleeves before powering his existence to maximize his vessel's jumping height.
'Heh.' Yasusada breathed, stretching his ethereal limbs as if he hadn't been out in a very long time.
'Memento Mori!' the swordsman urged, then, sensing the air beneath his feet as his body began its descent. The thought opted a groan from Hattori Hanzo, his existence wriggling about amongst the fibers of Terith's white sheet.
'...Fine.' he lazily said, clicking his fingers without so much as a second thought before resolving to resume his sleep. In a matter of urgency, the swordsman didn't question Hanzo's uncharacteristic willingness to offer the Resilience that easily, so he simply took to it with a grain of salt, gritting his teeth as a familiar pain singed into his nerves, the black padding of Hanzo's armor breathing a new found tactic into the cockles of his soul.
"Thought I was done for, huh?" he mumbled, digging his hand beneath his hip in a move to sheathe his weapon.
The flames seemed to disperse as his body landed sharply at the epicenter of everything, and, when he pried his blade from its scabbard, the goons too, had found themselves scattering as a pulse-like force disrupted whatever sort of movement they were supposed to make prior to it. Several bodies were hurdled into random obstacles, some visibly slipping into an unconscious state, while others limped about as the impact caused their wounds to widen just a bit further. Looking around him, he'd count a total of five heads, but if his memory served him well, there'd have to be several more.
So...where were they?
- Notes:
HP: 160 (-40 from AOE fire spell) | MP: 75%
Spells Used:
►Masamune no Tanzō (Masamune's Forge): Masamune is widely recognized as Japan's greatest swordsmith, forging many blades such as daggers and tachis respectively. Though he can only converse with this spirit for a short moment, Terith feels Masamune's divinity and regards it with high respects. The old man is certainly pleased by Terith's efforts to understand the magic as a part of him and therefor has allowed him to temporarily borrow his forge to conjure up several ghost copies of his Etherblade that will instantaneously hurl themselves towards a designated direction at a max of 40 meters away from him, with a max speed of 20 meters/per second. All the ghost copies deal damage that ranks up with user and maxes out at S-rank.
►Hijikata no Haikyo (Hijikata's Ruin): Upon appealing, the strategic genius Hijikata Toshizo temporary lets his vessel borrow his signature Hirazuki, a versatile stance which begins with the user holding his katana parallel to the ground and up near the shoulder. From this position, a quick, powerful and extensive thrust can be initiated and then, if necessary, altered to form a sideways slash. This Hirazuki involves Terith dashing across an area after assuming the given stance, hitting his enemies with either the blunt or the sharp end of his sword.
The movement needed to conduct this action is made possible through Toshi's providence of a necessary speed stat, adding another 10 meters per second to his vessel's base speed. The Hirazuki will also rely on the number of blades that have been formed from Masamune's Forge, as they act as its "marker". Any target within a 30 meter radius that had been hit with a ghost copy of the vessel's Etherblade will automatically be hit by the Hirazuki in a spur of a moment.
►Kigen-ryuku (The Origin's Force): The Kigen-ryuku is performed while the blade is still sheathed. The action of unsheathing it causes a burst of power that could be akin to the breakage of a layer of the vessel's inner being. It acts as a pushing force that renders surrounding targets to be thrust back ten meters away, affecting anyone within a five meter radius, dealing D-rank damage at the same time.
Other Abilities:
►The Threshold of Masters [UA]: This ability notably polishes his overall performance in battle. At best, he regularly uses this ability to be able to deal consecutive slashes with his sword in a given second without his hand going numb (which as of current equates to 5 slashes per second), or asking the spirits to control his finesse so he's movements are smoother and more refined, allowing him to reach inhumane feats such as increasing his max jumping height up to 40 meters. Any vacant imprint can take this job in managing the threshold, and Terith can only assign one specific job (e.g. dodging, maximizing the slashes he does) to the vacant imprint. This is to avoid Terith relying on his imprints too much and neglecting his training which is still relevant at his current stage of power.
The Threshold is only open to the greater spirits and can only be held by an imprint whose under cool down. If the spirit is currently active, he can't take over the threshold until his duration is over.
►Lesser Attunement (Now Greater Attunement) [UA]: Terith's Lesser Attunement bestows him a few minor enhancements. Terith's Origin behaves in a way that implied that he once had an affinity with speed and a resistance to general physical attacks. Therefor, Terith's base speed is increases to a max of 20 meters per second (currently), and is further complimented with a relative damage reduction to any form of physical damage, granting him a 25% reduction to physical damage of his rank, and a 50% reduction to ranks below him (with a subtraction of 5% the more he ranks up, e.g. At B-rank, D-rank physicals will have a reduction of 55% and so on).
And because Terith has demonstrated his willingness to accept the Etherblade as a part of him, each inspiration is allowed to lend him temporary ranked damage equivalent to the inspiration's rank, negating the possibility of loosing damage over defense (e.g. When the user activates a D-rank Imprint, then the gathered damage equates to one D-rank damage). This overrides Terith's melee damage and can only be used once per post on one extensive attack with his blade, meaning Terith cannot spam slashes when he favors ranked damage over his melee damage (please note that most of the spells don't deal ranked damage at all).
These base passives immediately disperse when the etherblade is no longer in the user's hand.