Taboo | How To slay A Kishin IC (PROLOG MODE)

Balefire Academy | Forest

The nature of the test was all Asura could focus on. While most other students may have seen this as a mere survival game, Asura had been questioning the reasoning behind many of the choices made. The first thing he noticed was how easy the first wave seemed to be as he was able o collect a white tag with a single uppercut to a single rodent like flying kishin. Then there was also what Miu said about having to move deeper into the forest to find different colored tags. It was like a puzzle that they had to figure out in order to find the tags they needed.

"If what you said is correct there it's possible that all the red tags are near the center where the stronger kishin live. But that could also be a trap. The kishin there might be to powerful to fight, or their might not be anything there at all. Either way, we have to go deeper if we want any cance of passing. Perhaps two of us should head to the center and we can gather tags in teams of two. What do you guys think?"

Meanwhile Lucy was happily following her big bro around. Lucy had no trouble at all with the white tag kishins as there really wasn't much to them. If this were a vieo game, they would be the level one enemies tou can easily take out just by using your base attack over and over again without worrying about dodging. However if the students moved a bit deeper they woudl find the yellow tags were the next in line. These kishin were a bit more deadly and more inteligant. These lot mostly used stealth as a means to attack pray. while they would be weak in a head on fight, letting one sneak up on you would lead to a very bad time indeed.

Balefire Academy | Forest

It took very little time before Aeron and his sister made it into the forest, and with the white flags in their possession, they were another step closer to their goal. Once reaching a certain distance within, Aeron slowed to a halt before silently looking around. There was certainly something off about this place as he listened to the soft crunch of grass and leaves as he took another step and paused. There should have been many more Kishin advancing towards the treeline, but instead the duo was met with silence. There was no doubt in his mind that there were many more Kishin than the ones just outside the forest, which meant that he and his adoptive sister would have to be on guard.

After a moment of silent contemplation, Aeron swept over the area once more with his gaze before turning to his sister. The look on his face was one of puzzlement and a small amount of suspicion, and soon Lucy would know why.

"Notice something? The forest is quiet, much quieter than it should be with a battle straight by the treeline. There should be Kishin running towards the fight, but it's like the forest is holding it's breath... Stay on guard and keep your ears alert for anything.", Aeron said before taking a slow deep breath and advancing further, keeping his ears peeled as he advanced.

Balefire Academy | Forest

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Once Cecilia got the signal to enter the forest, she did so as soon as she could. Unlike most of the other students, she a bit of a setup period that she had to go trough before she was battle ready. The first thing she did was to find someplace that seemed kind of protected. It wasn't the best spot, but it was definitively not out in the open. She then placed down the big case she had been carrying and began unpacking. The first thing she got was a lot more drones to help her keep track of the area. They were probably 20 or more in total. "Begin setup ... train ... use recording best 1-55 ... exclude 14, 29, 31, 47 ... optimize for dense foliage ... target Kishin, Human ... iterations 500 ... Initialize" she said, issuing commands to the drones to get ready to combat. After around a minute or two they were all ready. In the meantime She also set up the case itself. It had a built in encrypted I/O server, the most basic defense against attacks and in case nothing else worked, an EMP. After that she finally got the weapons she had decided to use. A machine gun in case of she got into a big fight, two pistols for more precision, a sniper rifle to take out enemies from afar before they noticed her, and a High-Carbon Steel saber in case of close combat.

Once she was finally ready she began walking into the forest. The start signal had already been given a minute or so ago. She then issued another command to the drones, "Begin recording ... 1-3 scout mode 500 m surface type". At the same time she also brought up the HUD allowing her to use the drones much more efficiently. Using the drones she could have a viewing angle of 360 degrees for about 25 m. The drones could help her aim, or they could spot enemies with their heat sensors.

Balefire Academy ~ Forest Edge

Soon enough, the forest became loud, with ringing from the plasma weapons, slashing from the blades, gunfire from guns and any of the sort. It was simple to Azur, everything became quite disorganized. "Damn, we've got people coming in left and right, Kishin swarming some of them," Azur muttered, "Might as well get down there, the tree doesn't seem to be holding up anymore..."

The tree Azur was on started to shake as Kishin were slamming against it, eventually knocking it down. "Welp, here comes..." Azur stated, as jumped down from the branch of the tree.

Quickly switching to his plasma blade, Azur's rifle made a series of mechanical sounds, before making a quick zap, which unsheathed his blade. A couple of Kishin started swarming him, which was going according to plan. "Hm, this doesn't seem as bad as the desert," Azur muttered to himself, waiting for one of the Kishin to make a move. Finally, after a stare-down, one of the Kishin bolted towards Azur, in which Azur reacted quickly to. He remained calm, and then suddenly strafed left, slashing his blade down on the unsuspecting Kishin. One down, Azur thought.

After a short period of time, Azur finished up the rest of the Kishin, collecting a few white tags. Have to move faster, he thought, running deeper into the forest.

Azur ran into a strangely silent part of the forest, where a man and what seems to be his feren partner stood. He dived for the bushes, making a few, if not several noises. Shoot, Azur thought, Did they already kill all of them? He hid in the bushes, hoping that they didn't notice his presence.

Balefire Academy | Forest


Already with two white tags and two knocked down Kishin, Diana now had a smirk on her face, she was actually enjoying her stroll through the forest, knowing that there were now stronger creatures roaming around, hidden as they were more intelligent than the first wave of targets "The small predators have passed, now come a bigger league." she said to herself as the rustling of leave got her attention. The viking stopped walking and and took a deep breath, letting the scents pass through her nostrils and getting familiar to the zone.

Taking the handle of her battle Ax, the blonde human made a powerful swing, going from her back to the ground at her right, making a small crater thanks to the brute force of the impact "Come on you beasts! My fists and my blade thirst for the challenge!" she yelled to the four points and gave a mighty roar, gathering all the attention she could.

Balefire Forest

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Koishi felt quite at home in this forest, even as the sounds of battle raged around her. She merrily skipped at a casual pace. There was no rush, she felt. There was certainly time to enjoy the views of the forest. She never had that much experience with them, and for her, it was a ncie change of pace.

Even as a Kishin crossed her path, she treated it as no more than an obstacle in her stroll. She worked quickly as the Kishin rushed at her on all fours, feral teeth threatening to snap her clean apart. She leapt above the kishin's deadly jaws, a pair of tendrils shooting out from her sleeves, impacting the kishin's porcelain-white skull with a loud CRACK. The kishin reeled, howling further as knives entered it's eye sockets, causing it to thrash violently and smack itself into a tree. Koishi finished the job quickly as she landed, running and pushing the throwing knife further into it's skull, until it's movements ceased. She retrieved the knives, one white tag, and then she moved on her way.

---

Balefire Forest

---

On a balcony far above the treeline, the distinctive and loud boom of a .50 BMG round being released from a rifle went off. Some poor would-be student got themselves nearly killed, and was certainly injured. A single 13mm round balanced the scale, careening directly into a kishin's brain, or what passed for one. Hank did a quick scan, searching for more, and as such, another bullet sailed forth, impacting into a kishin's neck, liquid spewing forth at a soon to be lethal rate.

Said students were automatically marked as failures in the records with the computer in Hank's goggles. This process would occur many times over the course of the exam, as they always did. And Hank did a near unheard sigh with every bullet. His disappointment was palpable.

Balefire Forest


The signal given, and Ashlewi took a deep breath in response. While she wasn't having second thoughts, she was certainly scared. She had never fought before in her life. Before her parents died, she was destined to become some powerful man's trophy wife and live the rest of her days nearly oblivious to the threat of the Kishin. Would the words "where did I go wrong?" make sense here?

She placed one foot in front of the other, making her decent into the depths of the forest. The Computer would keep her aware of anything melee, but medium to long-ranged attacks would be a problem. when she mustered up the courage, she would need to move faster. She continued her stride, however. If it wasn't apparent by her words, her cadence was a clear symbol of how regal the former common girl had become. It would take more than a beast or the darkness of a man's heart to stop her from achieving her goal.

Slowly her legs moved faster, with more purpose. Her steps became heavier, faster, stronger. She was running now. By this time, fights could be heard in the forest. Of course the students wouldn't be placed right next to the potential threats, and it would take time to reach their opposition. Some students were simply eager to begin fighting immediately. Ashlewi knew she'd need to be more careful than to simply rush in. Not only was there the possibility of a trap, but she might also have the chance to save someone from death. Preventing the death of others was their mission, Not simply killing monsters.

Ahead Ashlewi could see a Kishin thrashing about angrily. It did not appear to be fighting, simply trashing about. Before Ashlewi could observe it more carefully, it caught sight of her and began to charge. She was ready. She had to be ready. She immidiately assaulted the thing's mind, causing it to see Ashlewi running parallel to where she actually was. It would be a simple process of fooling the Kishin and stabbing, or shooting, it in the back of the head. As the two drew closer to each other, Ashlewi's understanding of the beast broadened when it came into the computer's range. It could now be scanned, everything from its weight to how dense parts of its body were. Most of this information would overwhelm a person who suddenly had their interface flooded with data, but Ashlewi was a prodigy among prodigies. Mental strain was nearly non-existent for her.

Some felt "off" about the Kishin's charge. Ashlewi couldn't quite tell what it was, however. She slowed down to a jog, allowing the Kishin to think that she was running. The image was going to flank around the beast, and then Ashlewi would have a clear shot. As her image did so, however, the Kishin seemed to be following the same tactic. It was trying to pin Ashlewi's image between itself and something else... Something to Ashlewi's Right!

Ashlewi let out a shriek and dived to the side just in time to avoid a blow from a yellow Kishin. The White Kishin's actions made perfect sense, now. He was bait for the Yellow one to surprise potential prey. While Ashlewi could fool one of them, she wasn't skilled enough to fool two at once. The fact that the yellow kishin had surprised her meant it could jump almost 30 meters. Ashlewi's shout also made the white Kishin disbelieve the image Ashlewi had sent and it started to double back toward Ashlewi. There were several precious seconds between her and failure.

She was able to right herself easily from the dive, but making this into a situation she could fight in was another story. The Yellow kishin was within leaping distance and the white one would be fairly soon. It would be too hard and take too much effort to try and trick the yellow one into running after an illusion, and the white one would likely be able to resist her ability. Instead, Ashlewi forced the yellow one into believing the branches overhead were much stronger than they were. Simple twigs and sticks began to look like iron and steel to the Kishin, and it took a low stance in response, attempting to circle Around Ashlewi as she began to run parallel to it--both the yellow and Ashlewi running away from the pursuing white.

Up ahead there was a clearing, and that meant the yellow kishin wouldn't need to fear jumping. The white Kishin was also fast enough to keep pace with Ashlewi and the yellow, meaning that the yellow kishin was also anticipating the clearing. It would be too easy for the superior kishin to circle and flank Ashlewi if it was that fast, so that meant the yellow kishin as actually keeping its pace with Ashlewi, waiting for its chance to execute its deadly lunge. What did that mean, though? Why would it depend on a lunge? a Dive? It also didn't simply charge the girl when it knew it couldn't jump. Was it being cautious? Was it afraid of Ashlewi?

As the white Kishin gained on Ashlewi she understood the situation. The yellow had limited intelligence, enough to hunt like a pack animal and act like an alpha to the white. The white was going to reach Ashlewi right when the yellow could leap, meaning that the yellow was planning on one of them to get the kill, not simply himself. It wasn't about glory, for the kishin. They were acting on instinct, and that is what Ashlewi would use to defeat them. Before they reached the clearing, Ashlewi spun like a graceful ballerina, positioning one of her legs to fire a shot at the white kishin while releasing the yellow from the delusion that it couldn't safely jump through the branches. The later immediately sprang forward as it preceived the opening in its strike coming early, and landed and crashed in front of Ashlewi while she slowed down to fire at the white. As if in unison, the white kishin clawed forward out of compulsion from the yellow kishin's leap and stumbled, allowing Ashlewi to step up a perfect shot.

Amidst the roars of the two beasts, bullets were soon her. From one boot Ashlewi fired and slew the white kishin. As the Yellow got to its feet from its stumble and grabbed for Ashlewi she danced out of its reach, her legs dangling ever so slightly outside its grasp, causing it to trash angrily. Soon, the yellow extended itself too far to be balanced, and Ashlewi's graceful steps aligned the barrel of her weapon with its face, firing two healthy shots into its head....

Silence settled in the forest around Ashlewi, but her heart and mind screamed in exclamation. She was a mix of feelings. Excited. Scared. Angry. Happy. She won, but she almost died. She took one step farther in this blood sport in the name of protecting others. Killing for the sake of living. Soon all the thoughts and emotions blurred together, and there was nothing but static and the sound of her own heaving chest. The rhythmic motion and sound brought Ashlewi back to reality. She couldn't get caught up in herself like this again. Now was fine, but the deeper she went, the more dangerous it would become.

Ashlewi knelt down and collected her tags. Luck of collecting two tags from the dismal back luck of her first fight being two on one. Ashlewi took another deep breath and reaffirmed herself, getting her position and distance traveled from her computer before looking back to the heart of the forest and heading deeper.

Balefire Academy | Forest (White)

Lucy followed her brother closely and did as instructed for the time being. Of cores when faced with a few lower level kishin if they appeared, but it was more important to them to find another color of tag, preferably a red one if they could. But there were no red tags in sight. They did however spot a few yellow ones being worn by bear like creatures with bone masks and claws that were as hard as iron. Getting count by them would be a deadly mistake. Their claws could easily rip through flesh and bone if one wasn't' careful. Lucy and her brother had gone unnoticed so far, however the bear like creatures seemed to beheading towards a woman's voice who had been challenging them, calling them out to a battle. This was the voice of the viking woman Lucy and her brother had met before. from the sound of it, she was little under a third of a mile away. Lucy's cat like ears allowed her to pick upon the sound easily enough.

Meanwhile in another par of the forest, Yuru and Saki had one in ahead of time to scout for possible students who may need testing. For the most part aiming for any students with an unfair advantage that didn't come from skill or talent. sure enough, one such student did show herself. The cat maid was easily able to pick up on the familiar sound of drones in the area. Not just one but many. She was still pretty far out of their viability range but she knew where most of them were just based off sound alone. ("Spoiled rich kid number one spotted") she thought to herself as she stood before turning to speak to her master. "Welp i'm gonna go break someone's legs master. If you need me you know how to summon me."

That was all she said before she approached the sounds of the drones. The drones in question would easily pick up a ton of lower level kishin on the outer areas of the forest which was also known as the white area, but they would have to look deeper to find the yellow level kishin. They might have also come across a few small animals like bugs, bats and some birds. What they would hav missed however was the girl who was slowly making her way to one of the ones closer to her previous location. A young looking female with cat like features in a maid uniform suddenly appeared in front of a drone as if she had come out of thin air. She would appear on the sensors for only a second before the drone that spotted her went offline. While Yuru could have taken it out without being spotted at all, she wanted her prey to see the face of her predictor. How would Cecilia handle this new development?

Balefire Academy | Forest(Yellow)

Asura and his team mates had unknowingly made it past the white area and into the yellow one and were now on their way to the orange sector. Asura had gone ahead to keep up with Azur and to make sure he was alright,leaving the girls to fend for themselves. they seemed to already know each other and both of theme seemed like capable fighters so there was little need for worry. Azur on the other hand might end up lost and alone if no one kept pace with him. While he did seem like a capable fighter as well, there were strength in numbers.

"Hey don't waste to o much ammo on the small fries, we might need it la..." before he could finish his sentence, Asura suddenly caught wind of a bear kishin that had come from behind him. He managed to turn and back step quickly enough to avoid the beast's claws but that didn't do him too many favores. They had landed themelves in a sort of "nest" for the bear kishin, or at the very least they have found a small pack of them. the kishin started coming from the thick bushes and from the trees with about 15 of them surrounding the two boys. They seemed to be packing yellow tags.

"...On second thought, fire away." he said as he took up arms and prepared to fight the small pack of kishin. Asura had been in this sort of situation before and he already knew the best way to deal with them. the young male quickly scanned the area to find the biggest and probably the strongest of the bunch. It didnt' take him long o spot a kishin that was a whopping 8 feet tall with bone like armor covering the back and sides of his body. It was as hard if not harder than iron which would protect it from most forms of attack and minimize damage from guns. Even if a gun was able to penetrate the armor, it would likely take more than one shot to kill it. ("There, that one must be the alpha") he thought to himself. This one had an orange tag too which made it all the more obvious that it was a cut above the others.

Asura quickly charged the alpha without warning to get it's attention. The beast swiped at him with his razor sharp claws but wasn't quick enough. The boy leaped over the bear's arm and flipped forward, using the momentum from the flip to sling his foot down onto the beast's iron hard skull. It hit hard enough to put his face in the ground but not hard enough to do much more than piss it off. By directly challenging the alpha, Asura was able to stop the other kishin from attacking for now. But they would still probably go after Azur and the others.

Balefire Academy | Forest(Yellow)

Aeron slowly treaded forward, expecting to be ambushed by a Kishin at any moment. He was almost certain that he was walking into an ambush, but it did not bother him. He had the tools to excel in a close-range confrontation, though what he didn't expect was the sound of a nearby bush rustling. Upon hearing the disturbance, Aeron swiftly aimed his rifle at the bush, but at that very moment, a loud declaration of battle rang through the trees, teraring his attention away from the bush as multiple bear Kishin emerged from hiding and pursued the source of the noise. To be honest, Aeron was quite a bit surprised that he was not attacked by any of the bears. Thanks to the female viking attracting their attention, the bears broke from cover and pursued her, leaving Aeron with a small grin as he counted his blessings. Wasting no time at all, Aeron took aim with his XM-8 and fired upon the Kishin as they ran towards Diana, easing some of the resistance she faced while giving Aeron a chance to find some yellow tags. It took all but a few brief seconds for him to fell three of the bear Kishin with his full-auto weapon, and by the fourth, a yellow tag dropped.

"Lucy, a tag!", Aeron shouted over the chaos as he pointed to a Kishin he had just killed.





Balefire Academy | Forest(White)

Saki simply nodded at her familiar before looking deeper into the forest. Although Saki could not see the students with her eyes, she could feel them, and it was from this sense where she was able to monitor every move they made, every word they said, and every plan they formulated. It was from this ability that would allow Saki to perform a little stalking of her own.

Balefire Academy | Forest(Yellow)


Hearing both the roar of the bear like creautures and the sound of bullets close was great and disappointing respectively ("Figures, some use projectiles.") she thought as the remaining bear slashed at her. Prepared for the attack, Diana used her battle ax to stop the slash, making both the blunt end of the weapon with the beast´s paw, it actually pushed her for a moment, earning a daring grin from the blonde "Oh, you are strong" she complimented the kishin as it backed a step and went for a charge, which was reciprocated by the viking who ran towards it. Both strong beings clashed, with the human elbowing the Kisin on the stomach, feeling one of the sharp talons graze some hairs of her furred armor.

"You are strong, but lost your pack" she spoke in a more soothing tone, oddly enough due to the fact she was fighting a beast who could split her in half. The viking´s talisman was now glowing as she punched the bear´s gut, taking the air out of its lungs, she then held the beast´s body with both hands and growled as she lifted it, just to slam it to the floor, rendering the beast unconscious, with another tag taken, this time a yellow one to the collection.

There were other bear kishin at her sight, but she was focusing her gaze to the sister and brother "I suggest you to leave this creatures alone, we both obtained yellow tags, there is no necessity to fight them." she spoke and ducked from the slash of a bear, she already had an idea on how to stop the creature, but it would be using one of her aces.