[X]You'll find it. The one point holding all of the winds together. And you'll break it.Gain Lightning Affinity
[X] Unlock Wind Affinity NAO GOGOGOGO (Spend the 5 points)
[X] Debris? Seriously? You can run on arrows. Wind? Debris? A hurricane? These aren't attacks. They're a road forward. Use the winds to buffet you into the air, make the debris into your stepping stones and close the distance in the blink of an eye. Since he probably doesn't want to hit himself with debris there shouldn't be any effect right next to him. As soon as you're clear smash him with stinger.
Howling spiraling winds crash against you while you try to stay upright. Aside from the fact you can't really move this attack doesn't really seem to be doing all that much. Sure, the buffeting screaming winds are taking all of your attention and you can't really see well enough to tell where Van is. It's just not all that impressive or good as an offensive move. Even that trick with the water did more damage to you.
Ow. A tiny cut appears on your arm. What caused that? Ow. A cut appears on your face. Then another and another. Slowly gaining more and more cuts. It's not debris. The wind is slowly turning into a cutting force. It dawns on you what Howl is actually doing. It's razor sharp wind. It doesn't have to be that great of an offensive power. It's got your movement locked down while slicing you up. You're dealing with the death of a thousand cuts. You need to get out of this wind.
There has to be some sort of trick holding it together. There is not any sort of perfect attack or perfect defense. The winds press down upon you in many ways. From the sides you get pulled to the back and ejected to the middle again. Going to the front just sends you flying backwards. You try to make your way backwards and you feel it. Where all of the winds come together and push forward. Where just a small spot isn't perfect. Where you can feel no pressure forcing you away. You keep running up against that wall of wind, trying, failing to make your way though. But you can't give up. You'll keep fighting on. You'll face it head on.
The air feels greasy, is the guy trying something new? The hairs on the back of your neck are standing up and the world becomes lightning. An unlucky bolt hits you dead on. But it's not, your body aches with unrestrained power. Lightning arcs and spreads from you as it thunders ominously in the background. Is this what an affinity for an element is like? The wave of lightning shatters the attack you've be dealing with.
You take a look around and see Van. The umbrella is smoking and he's waving around his hand like it's been burned.
"That. hurts. Lightning is a bitch to deal with you know. Enough that I don't like throwing around bolts of it. And then here you are making lightning bolts strike you and you don't have a mark on you. Well a mark from the lightning anyways. Something about this isn't right. Artifacts don't just gain new tricks like that. Actually now that I think about it, yeah they kind of do. But that's not the point. I was going to beat you up a bit and then leave you here."
He takes a look at the smoking umbrella and his own hand.
"But, you're strong. Too strong for me to let you go. I can't let you get in my way. I'll throw everything away if I can bring her back. And now, I can tell that you will. I'm sorry for this. It's not personal. It's just business."
The idle spinning and twirling that characterized the movements of his umbrella are gone. It's held straight and with an economy of motion that he didn't seem to have possessed before this moment. The glowing red snake seems to have grown since you last got a look at him. You can tell this screams bullshit power up. This isn't a shounen god damn it. Defeat does not mean friendship.
Gabriel doesn't count.
Van holds out his umbrella in front of him and the wind causes him to surge forward towards you. You prepare to swing at him when he gets closer but the wind blows upward sending him into the air. He does manage to kick you in the face as he flies upwards.
"Stinging Rain"
The water around you starts floating into the air and forming into bullet shapes as they start firing off at you at high speeds. You manage to dodge most of them but you get clipped several times. You look up at the floating Van. You wonder how in the world he can hold on well enough to actually float.
You need to get up there. You don't have any real ranged options and can't do anything from here. You need to get into his face. You take a second to look around. Fence to Window to Ledge to Roof. You run towards the fence dodging more of the rain and the puddles on the ground trying to attack you. You make it to the window barely taking a few of those raindrops to the face. The ledge you nearly fell off. And then you come face to face with Van on the roof.
"Drown"
And then you realized how much water in the air there was. Enough that there wasn't any air. Even now you can feel the water forcing you backwards off the roof. You could survive but you know you'd break something. As you fought the current that even now pushes you to your doom, a stray bolt of lightning connects with you. Vaporizing the the flood of water coating you.
Another lightning bolt whizzes by you as you smell burnt flesh.
"Stop with the fucking lightning. It fucking hurts."
Van's body is smoking. The hand not holding the umbrella is still crackling with unspent electricity. His flesh is blackened and burnt all down his arm.
"This is starting to get annoying."
You've been drowned, sliced up, and slammed around by wind. He does not get to complain about a few bolts of lightning.
And then you punch him in his face with stinger. You think you might have broken his nose.
Now what?
[]Press on the attack
[]Wonder about the lightning bolts that keep saving your ass?
[]Figure out if Gabriel will ever be useful
[]Punch him in the face again.
[]Write in.
