yui

The Threshold. Aptly named, for it was a sort of barrier separating formidable foes from the rest of the world. A threshold, even, that meant you'd have to fight a powerful enemy once you crossed it. As the group crossed this one in particular, they were met with two enemies, as promised. Two armored figures, identical save for the weapons in their hands. One wielded an axe, the other a spear. The plan more or less lined up with Abby's suggestion from earlier; the party splits up, with two fighting each enemy. It seemed the axe-wielder would be dealt with by Gene and Sabrina, which left the lance-user for Abby and Marshall. As much as she wanted to keep an eye on the other pair as well, this was supposed to be a powerful enemy, which meant giving the lancer her undivided attention. Abby made her way over to Marshall's side, joining in the slow and deliberate approach toward their shared target. "You got a plan for this guy or are we playing it by ear?" she asked. "Well," Marshall murmured, eyes briefly drifting towards Sabrina's antics, before returning to their own foe. "If you trust me to do so, I was going to try and keep him focused on me using my speed and relatively equivalent range; so that you could get in and..." she'd trail off, not feeling as if she needed to voice the idea of 'smash-a him with a hammer'. "Sounds good to me. I'm right behind you." Abby reached her swinging arm out to the side, calling upon her trusty smashing hammer. Meanwhile, her other hand tensed up, preparing to do that overcharge thing she'd learned about in the previous trial. "Once you start running, I'm going to try pulling him toward us, so be ready for that." "Roger," she'd reply briefly; moving from her leisurely pace, to a full sprint towards the enemy. She focused herself, for a moment, as she tightened her grip on her lance and felt the telltale feeling of energy falling under her command as she ran; lowering the spear in front of her as she overcharged 'Full-Steam-Ahead' with a heavy thrust of the lance; doing her best to try and get the maximum amount of power and value out of it and Abby's pull both; and to try and catch her opponent at least a little off guard, if she couldn't wait to see what they were capable of before engaging. As soon as Marshall made her move, Abby took it as her cue to do the same. As Marshall charged forward, Abby pulled back, calling upon an inward blast of wind that pulled on the armored foe. Not enough to bring it all the way over, but certainly enough to get it off-balance and a bit closer to the girls, giving Marshall a perfect opening to land a direct hit on the enemy. With a solid opening hit, Abby took the moment to close some more distance on foot while the getting was good.

Takumi Hector Gatekeeper Female Byleth Robin Roy Tharja Mustafa

With the two levers pulled, the Exalted had - by River's acocut - completed the test and proven themselves worthy of the combat trial. "Do you think....coming here made us smarter too?" "M-Maybe..." "I think it's less that and more we have more heads on the puzzle," Abby suggested. Whatever the reason for their success may have been, it was regardless time to go check out that combat trial. As the team went back the way they came, and through the door that was now open to them, there were more murals on the walls. More history, it seemed. It was never Abby's strongest subject, even with modern learning resources, let alone picture murals and oral tradition. She'd be lying if she said a lot of this wasn't just going over her head, but by the sound of it, the people of this world used to be regular humans too? If the people back home heard of this, they'd surely feel ripped off. She could already hear some degenerate bemoaning the very mundane state of that world, saying something like "Why couldn't our world be blessed with catgirls?" Abby, for one, didn't really care for that kind of sentiment. Cat-ear headbands existed, and she'd even worn one before; it was important to settle for what was possible with this sort of thing. Speaking of what was possible, while she didn't doubt her chances in this combat trial to come, it would definitely be beneficial to know more about it. "So, is it just one big enemy in there, or are we dealing with a bunch of smaller guys, or... what's the deal? If you're allowed to tell." "Oh, why yes, I am able to speak about it. Though, the specifics of your opponents' capabilities are unknown to me, I am aware that there are two be two of them. As for their strength I believe them to be about the height of Gene, though they are certainly more fearsome then any of the Drengr you have fought thus far." "Hear that, folks? Two on four. I say we try to keep them split up."

debated putting this here or in music thread and settled for putting it here cos of the 30-second pre-song intro and about a minute of video left after the song's over

it's got english captions

i've most definitely posted the original before (if i haven't, shame on me), but i found this cover i like too

wake up new kanaria dropped

Sabrina and Marshall had eached earned a brief round of applause from Abby as they made their respective landings on the platforms on the sides of the room. The former without even needing a boost from Abby this time! That focus thing River talked about was pretty potent stuff. In the latter's case, however, there was something of a new situation to be addressed. “...To be completely transparent, I am drawing a blank on how to reach the top of this platform myself, given the fact that my mobility Art has so far succeeded in propelling me primarily horizontally. I could, of course, attempt to see if it would allow me the momentum necessary to climb this wall, but I do not know if I would be able to stop should it send me horizontally anyways, and I am unsure of if I want to risk throwing away the progress we’ve obtained here in this moment; so, I was wondering, if you had any suggestions on ways we could facilitate an expedient solution to the problem at hand. Be it with the wind-trick you tried to help Sabrina with, Abby... or something more-physical, such as seeing if a mix of my art being pointed upwards, and some… Propulsion, from your hammer, might suffice; granted that you yourself able to reach me over here.” "Giving you a boost sounds like the safest bet. Lemme just..." Abby tried the trick herself, focusing on the natural movements in her body. The movement of air through her head and into her body as she inhaled, and the return trip of carbon dioxide as she exhaled. The filling and emptying of her lungs. The air in the room swirled around her hand, indicative of a more powerful version of the small boost of wind she'd provided earlier. With an upward gesture, Abby released the built-up power and...! Something interesting happened. That interesting something in fact being nothing. Nothing happened. Where there was supposed to be a dramatic upward surge of air to propel Marshall to her objective, there was simple stillness. The spell had worked just fine when she tried it before, and she definitely felt the thing River had talked about going on. That only left one reasonable culprit. Distance. Abby was simply too far away from Marshall right now. Nudging Gene with her elbow, Abby said "Another water wall, if you don't mind." Gene nodded, creating another Water Wall platform. "...what are you planning to do exactly...?" "This." Taking a couple steps back, Abby took a deep breath. She was never much of an athlete, and definitely couldn't launch herself like Marshall had, but she could surely cover enough distance to propel her upward like the plan was. "Get ready to jump," Abby called out. With the best of a running start she could manage, Abby hopped up onto the water wall Gene had kindly provided, quickly realizing the physics issues of trying to literally walk on water. While she was able to get some distance, it wasn't long before she was force to take a clumsy leap forward, sending herself on a fast-lane trip to the waters below much like Sabrina and Marshall had earlier. On the way down, however, that was when she made her move. By the power within her Arts, refined by greater focus, a mighty blast of wind shot forth between Abby and Marshall, directly into the latter woman. Abby, for her part, fell into the water and was unceremoniously spit back out onto the bridge, but up on the platform... "On it," Marshall called out, throwing her lance to the side so as to allow it to disappear in a a few fair motes of light. Crouching down, she listened for the blast, taking a quick breath before springing upwards with all her might; the blast of wind impacting her in the back and briefly causing her to splay her limbs out to her sides... Only to, as she reached the apex of the jump, throw her hands forwards, fingers clutching onto the side of the ledge... And firmly grasping it, with all her might, as the rest of her caught up; her face smacking lightly into the edge, and her cap knocking itself down, and onto the platform behind her. "...Unfortunate," she frowned, wincing slightly from her bruised nose and loss of cap, before taking in a deep breath. After a second, with a concerted effort, she began to slowly crawl up to the top of the platform, pulling herself up, and climbing upwards, where she would first move to get her torso on the platform, before rolling the rest of herself up, and onto her back. After a moment of this, she would simply hang an arm off the side, and give a thumbs up, while she caught her breath. A thumbs-up returned by Abby from the lower ground of the bridge. "That," Abby clarified, redirecting her attention to Gene.

oh well in that case

one of my favorite slam jams lately