Dragon Chronicles:Gods of War, and Times of Peace OPEN

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia could do nothing but stare at the ships coming down from the sky. No wonder they had all been so calm about her going on this mission, it was merely a decoy. She scrambled up to her feet from where Longshot had knocked her out of the way, looking at Reaper.

"Invasion? God, you're telling me that this was the plan all along?" Delia took a step towards Reaper, suddenly angry. She pointed a finger towards him. "There better damn well be no pranks on the newbie after this." Delia hated being left in the dark, it was almost an unhealthy obsession. She whirled away from Reaper, looking out over the edge of the building. Something else was bothering her.

Delia tried to spot Valentine, but he has out of sight. Nothing can get through my mana shield now. Why hadn't she seen it? She closed her left eye and scanned the area for him. She found him easily enough a ways away, she realized now that the mana did behave oddly around him. She strained her vision and saw what she had missed earlier. It was a thin layer of mana surrounding him, so faint that she must have mistook it for a smudge on the scope of the gun. More angry with herself than with anyone else, she turned away from the edge of the building to face Longshot.

"Here," she said, handing him the gun she still held.  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

Reaper smirked. "Actually, one three people in the Shadow Corp knew about it, so don't feel so bad." And with that, he was gone, off the building and down into the combat.

Longshot took his rifle back, scanning the horizon. "Something feels weird about all this. Valentine was strong, sure... but never that strong." He shook his head, shrugging. "Ah well, no point in worrying."  

[Stelle Cadenti]

((Urgh, I've got to get into writing for Delia again...))

Delia watched the battle on the ground below the building they stood upon, the ships covered the sky, more poeple still being dropped down into the fray. She turned to Longshot.

"I've never seen anything like Valentine. It's the mana, his mana shield is, well, it didn't really seem like much, but it's so powerful. Did he not have that until recently? He's still getting stronger?"  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

((Oh, this is going to be fun. My characters have evolved so much.... ugh -__- ))

Longshot sighed. "Yes, he was always strong... a match for me, in close combat. However, against me at long range... well, let's just say that Reaper would struggle to block the shot of my rifle with mana alone." He sat down, tapping the back of his left hand with his fingers. "Reaper has his own mana shield, so do I... hell, even you do. However, it's normally too weak to do anything except... lessen the impact of a spell or bullet, if you're trained correctly. Reaper is immune to most firearms because of it, but it's the heavy stuff that gets him. Shotguns at close range, sniper rifles and the like. He can... stop the bullets dead. I, on the other hand, can divert them slightly, and that's only pistols." Longshot sighed, shrugging slightly.

A group of fighters flew above them, very, very close. So close, in fact, that Longshot had to grab his hat, before it went flying. "Damn rookies..." He grunted, standing up and looking around. "... Hmm, I recognize that sound..." It sounded like a hammer striking a piece of metal, but... very very far away. "That's..... oh no." Longshot started frantically scanning the horizon, tapping his ear at the same time. "Jack, we got PZT-900s, where I don't kno-" The building next to them exploded in a shower of metal. "Crap!" Longshot spun around, flipping his coat out and covering Delia, as some of the shards of metal left rather deep cuts on his face.
"That's... gonna sting."  

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia crouched under the coat that Longshot had thrown over her, she still felt a sting of metal against her arm though. The aftershock from the blast caused the building they were standing on to shake slightly, Delia adjusted her footing to it. She peeked her head up once the shrapnel stopped flying towards them, the building was completely destroyed but for a few pieces of it near the bottom. Delia stood upright, shrugging the coat off from on top of her. She looked down at her arm and saw the piece of metal that had stuck, she gingerly pulled it out and threw it to the ground. It wasn't deep.

"What the hell was that?" She yelled to Longshot, still slightly deaf from the explosion. She looked around the horizon, the fight was still raging on. "More importantly though, are there any more?"  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

Longshot rubbed his face, frowning. "That... was an artillery round." He grunted, scanning the horizon. "According to files.... they always work in groups of four or five. And.... one of the rounds is coming RIGHT FOR US!" He shouted, turning and running from the big yellow ball in the sky, that was rapidly approaching, simply grabbing Delia and jumping off of the roof. "Not moving fast enough..." He muttered something, the magic seals appearing around him. "Seven point seal.... Lightning rush!" There was a cracking sound, before Longshot, and Delia, seemed to turn into a bolt of lightning, slamming into a building, and passing right through the wall, before rematerializing on the other side.

Unfortunately, a little too close to a wall, which Longshot promptly ran right through, leaving a large hole. He tripped over something, landing rather hard, ontop of Delia, and then covered her with his jacket, as the whole building shook, dust raining from the roof.

A few minutes, and Longshot stood up, rubbing his ears. There has been a rather loud explosion, and Longshot wasn't sure if he was deaf or not. "Delia, you ok?"  

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia had closed her eyes when they had flown into the wall, only opening them once the rubble had settled and everything was quiet. She stuggled to regain her breath after she had it knocked out by Longshot, the air was full of dust and wasn't helping the process. The ringing in her ears quieted just enough for her to hear Longshot ask if she was alright.

"Yeah," she managed to choke out, sitting up at the same time, "I'm fine." She sucked in a lungful of air and stood up, her breathing back to normal. Delia turned towards Longshot, "You said they came in groups of four or five. That's only two."  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

Longshot shrugged. "That sound you hear before? That was them firing, so who knows where else they'l be... Dammnit!" He grunted, silently sliding up next to the door, pulling out his silenced pistol. He made a hand sign to Delia, signalling that he had heard something, possibly hostiles.  

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia took a step closer to Longshot, her hand reached up to the katana on her back. She moved slowly to be quiet and slid next to the door on the opposite side of Longshot. She heard footsteps coming from outside, though in the clamour of the fight it was hard to tell exactly where they were coming from. She turned to the closed door and saw past it with her eye.

Delia immediately noticed two people in armour coming the way of the building. They were both holding weapons that looked nothing like the ones she had seen with the Shadow Corp. Hostiles.

Delia looked at Longshot and held up two fingers. She quietly slid out her katana from its sheath and held it at the ready.  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

Longshot nodded, placing his ear to the wall. Ok, two hostiles... Delia can take one of them, however, if they're Elites, she won't stand a chance. He swallowed hard, drawing both his daggers, after placing his pistol away.
Clack clack clack
Longshot held his hand up, signalling to Delia to wait, until his order.
The footsteps slowed, and the barrel of a gun appeared in the doorway. It slowly moved forward, shaking slightly.

And then, it happened. Longshot grabbed the gun, pulling the soldier round the corner, slamming his knee into his groin, before slamming into the wall, his two daggers finding their targets.

The other soldier rushing into the room, his back to Delia as he tried to find his mark. However, Longshot beat him to it. With the daggers still holding the other one to the wall, the soldier gagging on his own blood, Longshot landed a kick on the barrel of the gun, pushing the soldier off balance, as a few rounds were set free.

"NOW DELIA!" Longshot shouted, the soldier glancing back as he fell, red coloured eyes visible from behind the helmet.  

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia griped the sword tightly, holding it with both hands. She saw Longshot dispatch the first soldier, ad then saw the second fall. This was different than the first time, they were able to fight back. It wasn't just a slaughter. Delia reconciled with the fact that this was what was considered ethical in war, an equal battle. But really, who had time to think about ethics when in a situation presented by war.

The soldier was heavily armoured, it didn't look like Delia's sword would do much damage to it. In a split second though, Delia had the sword poised above the soldier's throat, where there might have ben a gap in the armour. It was hard to tell in the gloom of the building, but Delia took her chances and just like the first time, drove the sword down.  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

Longshot stood, his back against the wall with his right foot held off of the ground, and his right hand on his left shoulder. "Good job Delia..." He smiled, then groaned, tapping his ear with his right hand. "This is... Delta Zero Zero, requesting Medi-vac, over." Longshot stood still for a second, listening to the reply, as blood trickiled down his left arm and leg. "... confirmed, we will hold for ground evac."

He slid down the wall, gritting his teeth. "Damn fool got lucky, one of his bullets just missed my head. Hit my shoulder, my foot and my knee."  

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia quickly sheathed the katana and moved away from the body. Her brow crinkled in worry when she saw Longshot. She ahd been lucky, none of the bullets had gone her way. She ran over to where Longshot sat against the wall and knelt down beside him.

"Oh, god," was all she muttered before sticking out her right hand and materializing the medkit she had stored in her ACU earlier. The supplies were minimal, just enough to treat wounds temporarily. She pulled out a tourniquet and quickly tied it around Longshot's leg, just above his knee, to stem the flow of blood. She had enough basic first aid to know that you had to apply pressure to wounds. She pulled out a piece of cloth in the medkit, probably a sling, a ripped it easily into strips.

Delia looked Longshot in the eyes before going on, "Alright?" She asked, not waiting for a reply. She tied the strips tightly on the wounds.  

[Fujiwara Kazunari]

Longshot chuckled, patting Delia on the head. "I'm alright... I've survived being suspended in the air, with the Puppeteer's Spirit Thread through my body... damn, that hurt. So, I'll survive a few bullet wounds, alright?"
"Longshot, Delia, this is Reaper, come in."
Longshot nodded to Delia. "Take the call, he'll probably just shout at me for getting shot.
"Damn right I will Sergio, you left your comm on. Angel is on her way, however, there's a few AA guns about, you'll need to hold on. Reaper out."
"Damn him..." Longshot shrugged. "He's been in worse scrapes before, did I tell you about the time he almost blew his hand off? He pick up a grenade, not knowing the pin was out."  

[Stelle Cadenti]

Delia sat back on her heels, listening to the exchange between Longshot and Reaper. To the grenade comment she said;

"That sounds like it could be an advert for grenade safety, has Reaper thought about a career in acting lately?" She smirked. She took a moment to check out the surroundings, she didn't notice anyone coming towards the building with her cursory glance. Her head turned quickly away from the bodies of the two men, her gaze merely passing over them.