Starring:
Date: November 10, 2015
Summary:
Suna nin deal with a band of would-be cow kidnappers.
"Cattle Rustlers"
Grassy Plains [Land of Wind]
B-rank: A herd of specially bred dairy cows is slated to be distributed to various ranches around the Land of Wind, providing breeding stock. It is known for a fact that unscrupulous business interests from other nations have hired mercenaries, including some shinobi, to capture all or part of this herd, so protecting it has been assigned as a B-rank mission. Defend the ranchers and their herd from assault.
Break out the saddles and spurs, it's time for a cattle drive! A special type of dairy cow has been successfully developed and shown to be highly productive and safe after a long period of careful breeding and testing. A herd of such cows is being driven about the Land of Wind, selling just a few to each ranch for reproductive purposes, and a B-rank mission has been ordered to protect them on their journey. Are these cows really that valuable? Well, yes, and more importantly, there's been solid intel gathered that unscrupulous business ventures have hired mercs to steal some of the bovines. :o It's not so much a matter of if, but when.
Sousa examines the nearest cow during a stop to let them rest and graze. "I am not particularly familiar with bovine physiology, but it appears to me as though they've managed to incorporate some camelidae features into the phenome," he remarks. "That should be quite valuable in terms of their resilience to the local climate."
«INK» Arika wonders how many words Sousa had to look up in that last paragraph
«OOC» Sousa says, "Camilidae, and I wasn't quite sure of phenome until I checked."
«OOC» Sousa says, "*Camelidae"
Arika has neither saddles nor spurs because horses don't do particularly well in the Land of Wind. It's much easier to travel by foot, at least for short distance, and Arika has enough stamina to keep her going across the whole of the desert! … Not really, but she's certainly energetic. And today is no exception, as she's bouncing around and peeking at all these weird new cows. "They dun look /that/ different, though!" she says, despite not really knowing what an actual cow looked like. How different were they, anyway? Surely not terribly different! The girl peeks over at Sousa and stares blankly at him for a few moments while he spills whatever nonsense he likes, only offering a confused nod. "H…. Hai……" she says unenthusiastically before bounding over to see what Hiroto is up to!
«OOC» Sousa says, "If you'd all like to involve coded combat in this, we should probably roll watching for incoming rustlers."
Hiroto follows along the whole time bored like, but he is keeping his eyes out. Tenshi would stay up in the air doing the same thing. Eventually they would have stopped, and he looks around as Sousa spoke. He had no idea what he was saying most of the time. He was smart, but more so a strategic smart. Well a little bit of both, but nothing special for now. Eventually Arika comes his way, and he smiles at the opportunity to distract himself. "Hey Arika. Having fun?"
«OOC» Hiroto wouldn't mind coded combat, so I could roll some… Are we all going to join order, or just hop in and out for now if we do it? Also if others don't want it then it works for me. :)
RP: Sousa joins the roleplay.
COMBAT: It is now Sousa's turn.
«OOC» Sousa says, "Might as well stay in order if we're doing it."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Well yeah.. I just wanted to make sure the others didn't not want to do it."
RP: Arika joins the roleplay.
RP: Hiroto joins the roleplay.
RPCOMBAT: Sousa defends against with a PERCEPTION…48
COMBAT: Sousa finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Arika's turn.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "…"
«OOC» Hiroto imagines he is going to roll low on Hayato senses now. XD
COMBAT: Arika focuses 2557 stamina to turn it into 4000 usable chakra!
RPCOMBAT: Arika defends against with a INK-SCOUT-I…54
COMBAT: Arika finishes her turn.
COMBAT: It is now Hiroto's turn.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "…"
COMBAT: Hiroto focuses 2383 stamina to turn it into 2000 usable chakra!
RP: Hiroto transforms into TENSHI.
RPCOMBAT: Hiroto defends against with a HAYATO-SENSES…48
«OOC» Hiroto says, "EHhh not bad."
COMBAT: Hiroto finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Sousa's turn.
"No indeed, they are still quite definitely cows," Sousa replies. "Speciation has not occurred, which is fortunate because the entire idea is to spread their advantageous features through the existing cattle population." Sousa turns from the cow and peers at the horizon. "One…two…three…three approaching groups, if I am not mistaken," he murmurs. Sousa glances at the others, who look to be as alert to the situation as he is. "They appear to be hedging their bets by attacking from multiple sides," Sousa says. "A classic strategy, made all the more effective by the fact that they need only succeed in snatching a sample from one front to fulfill their purposes. We shall have to split our forces and engage each group." Sousa dashes off to intercept what looks like the most formidable of the rustling parties.
The group heading in on Arika's side is led by a burly man with a bushy black beard. He leers at Arika when they get close. "Skinflints must've gone cheap on their muscle. Could've saved their precious steers if they'd ponied up the cash to hire me instead. EARTH CRUSH!!!" The man slams a fist into the dirt, and the ground beneath Arika's feet splits and suddenly swings upward in two large chunks to squash her in the middle. Meanwhile, the rustlers try to head on around the conflict toward the cows.
Hiroto's group turns out to be headed by a slender woman with long, straight hair covering one of her eyes. She looks at Hiroto with disdain. "This chick shouldn't have ventured out of the nest so soon. Well, all the better for me!" Her one visible eye narrows into a slit, and a paralyzing sensation of killer intent washes over Hiroto. As with the other group, the guys who are there as rustlers more than fighters attempt to make for the cows.
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Crush from 30 to 50 and get(s) a 45. - Rolled by: Sousa
COMBAT: Sousa finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Arika's turn.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "… Did I just encounter someone who use genjutsu. D:"
«OOC» Hiroto is screwed.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "XD"
[NPC System]: SallySlither roll(s) Killer Intent Genjutsu from 15 to 25 and get(s) a 24. - Rolled by: Sousa
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Luckily I got a good Int."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Oh wait."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "D:"
«OOC» Sousa was going to have her go straight for a tai assault, but figured that would seem odd when you'd definitely have opportunity to attack her at range before she could get close. X)
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Yeah considering the bow on his back and everything. XD"
«OOC» Hiroto needs to make an attack using my bird….
«OOC» Sousa says, "Maybe I should've just given you attack priority. Ah well."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "I will fail that roll for sure, but as long as it turns into mostly Tai later I will be fine. :D"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "My gen is 1 and my seal is 2 so you know. XD"
RPCOMBAT: Arika defends against with a WIND-STEP…40
«INK» Arika says, "That min"
«OOC» Sousa says, "Hmm, let's say 500 damage for that. And I'll have to start rolling higher stuff if that's your min on a D-rank defense. XD"
«INK» Arika says, "It was a C rank!"
RPCOMBAT: Arika took 500 damage.
«OOC» Sousa says, "Ah."
"Hai! Well, sorta. It's kinda boring jus' watching all'a cows, though," she grumbles. No sooner did she speak when Sousa alerted the group to approaching enemies. "Oh! Yay~" The girl would send out a few scouts in front of her before she grinned to Hiro and disappeared with a burst of wind. When she stops in front of the big burly man, she crosses her arms over her chest and tries to puff herself up and look all threatening. … The attempt might look a bit comical, admittedly. "It'd be silly t' hire you! You'd jus' steal the cows!" she states, grumpy. And then he punches the ground, and Arika wasn't exactly expecting for the earth to shoot up. She ends up getting smashed, or at least her foot since she wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. "Meanie!" she pouts at him. The girl wouldn't be able to move as fast, now! She huffs again, then makes a few handseals. With the last one, she would throw three kunai-like blades of wind at the man. The blades were invisible, though, unless the stranger is a Hyuuga or something.
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 49
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 44
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 44
COMBAT: Arika finishes her turn.
COMBAT: It is now Hiroto's turn.
RPCOMBAT: Hiroto defends against with a GENJUTSU-PERCEPTION…6
«OOC» Hiroto says, "XD"
«OOC» Hiroto got wrecked.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "So what does that do? :/"
«OOC» Sousa says, "To speed things along, instead of treating that as a stun, we could just say it allows her to get in one tai strike before you break free and attack back."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "So you just want me to take some damage now? XD"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Or do you want me to be stunned this turn still?"
«OOC» Sousa says, "Just take 300 damage. She attacks you with a kunai. Feel free to pose that you free of paralysis just in time to take it in a non-vital spot."
«OOC» Sousa says, "*wrench free"
RPCOMBAT: Hiroto took 300 damage.
«OOC» Hiroto nods.
Hiroto nods with a smile. "Yeah… Well seems we got enemies… Let's go." Hiroto hops up pulling his bow into his hand. He spots the woman in front of him, and eyes her. Just as he goes to pull the arrow from his quiver he gets hit by some sort of genjutsu. With Tenshi's making some bird sounds it brings him out of it quicker. It allows him to curve away only getting hit near his shoulder. "Fancy your genjutsu don't you?" He pulls a forked arrow from his quiver firing it in a way to hopefully hold her into the ground. That would allow him to quickly move firing first with extra chakra infused into the bow, and the second one with slightly less so hopefully one would hit.
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with DISRUPTIVE-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 39
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with POWER-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 16
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 28
«OOC» Hiroto says, "The first one is an attack stun so you know."
COMBAT: Hiroto finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Sousa's turn.
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Dome from 40 to 60 and get(s) a 60. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Dome from 40 to 60 and get(s) a 44. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Dome from 40 to 60 and get(s) a 48. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Slippery Dodge from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 36. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Slippery Dodge from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 37. - Rolled by: Sousa
«INK» Arika says, "Powerful guys D:"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Good thing I got intuitive action now."
The burly merc ninja laughs maliciously. "Maybe I would steal 'em! All depends on how ornery I'm feelin', and how much better an offer I get! You're smart for a squirt, too bad you're gonna be — whoa!" >.<; The merc puts up a dome of earth over himself just in time to protect himself from Arika's wind attacks. "Strong for a squirt too. Looks like I can't afford to play around after all." >( The merc reaches into the earth and pulls out a chunk in the shape of a crude club. Hoping to take advantage of Arika's injured foot, he charges in and swings the heavy weapon at her.
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Club from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 30. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Club from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 32. - Rolled by: Sousa
COMBAT: Sousa finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Arika's turn.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Average rolls are average."
«OOC» Sousa probably should've made the range a bit lower on those in retrospect, they're Powerful as well as being a rank lower than what he used before.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "XD"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Yeah probably."
«OOC» Sousa says, "Well, maybe the Earth Crush was powerful as well. ;)"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "… XD"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "You doing my person before my pose and such? D:"
«OOC» Sousa says, "Indeed, I merely hoped to speed things along by giving Arika her part to respond to as soon as possible."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Yeah it made sense to me. Guessing you already have my part ready because of it so I can wait."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "XD"
«OOC» Hiroto was just making sure.
«OOC» Sousa says, "Still writing your part, actually."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Oh wow… D:"
«OOC» Hiroto prepares for death. XD
RPCOMBAT: Arika defends against with a WIND-DASH…41
RPCOMBAT: Arika defends against with a WIND-DASH…37
Hiroto's opponent thrusts at him with a kunai. "'Like' has nothing to do with it, a survivor uses all tools at — ARRRGH!!!" DX When Hiroto stretched his bow, the lean woman flexed her body sinuously to avoid the incoming shot, but it took her by surprise that he aimed at her leg. Held in place by the arrow, she takes the second shot full in the ribs, although she manages to twist around the last one. She snaps the flight end of the arrow protruding through her calf and jerks her leg off the shaft, then lurches at Hiroto. "Arrogant fledgling, I will consume you WHOLE!" >E The woman's neck stretches a short distance and she opens her mouth with dripping fangs to lunge at Hiroto's shoulder.
Meanwhile, the rustling groups have each reached the herd and started separating a few cows from it. They can't get away too fast with their prizes, of course, but the Suna nin can't be taking forever with their adversaries if they want to preserve their client's R&D investment.
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Serpent's Bite from 15 to 25 and get(s) a 16. - Rolled by: Sousa
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Well…. Not to screw myself over, but her non genjutsu attacks can roll higher I am sure… I got two 7's while TF'ed and can use Intuitive Action.. A C-Rank Defense… I don't know my exact roll range, but unless your keeping that low to stay the same as genjutsu… Up to you in the end…"
«OOC» Sousa says, "On her end, she's about as adept with both moves."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "I expected as much. I just wanted to make sure."
Arika avoids the club of earth by simply dashing off to the side. "Play?" she asks, perking up. "I like to play! Can we play… umm… Tag? I guess that'd be suiting." She nods. "I'll be it, first!" Then she tries to slice at the man again, using three strikes of the same attack. The girl isn't entirely sure if she'd hit the man, but that's why she tried three times!
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 44
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 45
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 48
COMBAT: Arika finishes her turn.
COMBAT: It is now Hiroto's turn.
RPCOMBAT: Hiroto defends against with a INTUITIVE-DODGE…31
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Block from 30 to 50 and get(s) a 40. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Block from 30 to 50 and get(s) a 38. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Block from 30 to 50 and get(s) a 47. - Rolled by: Sousa
Hiroto quickly hops away from her neck. Next he decides to use a little trick he practiced. He pulls a Forked arrow, and holds it in place before throwing a kunai up into the air. It is mostly a lob, and he fires at the kunai causing the arrow to bounce off of it in a way to fall down onto the woman's outstretched neck. Once it hopefully stuck her neck into the ground he pulled another sharpened arrow loaded with chakra and fired. He had to finish this quickly to stop the others who are stealing the cows. He doesn't want to kill, but it is a part of the job. Just in case his first one was missed he would fire the second one with less chakra as a back up.
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with DISRUPTIVE-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 35
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with POWER-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 23
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 28
COMBAT: Hiroto finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Sousa's turn.
The burly merc-nin tries to shield himself from Arika's wind slices with his earthen weapon, but every one of them slips past. "Graaaa! You're an annoyance, girl! I'm going to smash that cheeky little face in!" >.< Gripping the earth club, he pours more chakra into it. Spikes grow out of the end of it, and he swings it around for a powerful overhead smash.
«INK» Arika guesses he doesn't want to play tag, then :(
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Spiked Earth Club from 30 to 50 and get(s) a 40. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Slippery Dodge from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 33. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Slippery Dodge from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 34. - Rolled by: Sousa
COMBAT: Sousa finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Arika's turn.
COMBAT: Arika focuses 2432 stamina to turn it into 4000 usable chakra!
RPCOMBAT: Arika defends against with a WIND-STEP…61
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 52
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 40
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with WIND-SLICE with a roll of: 52
Arika avoids the incoming attack, pouting at the man. "You dun wanna play?" She asks, giving him big puppy eyes to try and convince him to do such. Well, that didn't work very well because she was forced to avoid another pound of earth thrown in her direction. "Okay.." she pouts, the girl forming a few more slices of wind-based chakra to throw at him. They would be fairly accurate, too. The blades being invisible made it hard to avoid them, so hopefully they hit! Arika lets herself get a bit distracted in the process, glancing back to make sure that Hiro was okay.
COMBAT: Arika finishes her turn.
COMBAT: It is now Hiroto's turn.
«OOC» Hiroto waits for the snake womans pose.
As before, the snake-lady is caught by Hiroto's trick arrow and the subsequent extra-powered shot, but manages to slip away from the last arrow. She hisses balefully and slides sideways around Hiroto while planning her next move. Ordinarily when she's got two arrows sticking out of her, she'd decide that things aren't going well enough to risk continuing…but with the opponent being a ranged specialist, running is itself a very risky proposition. >.<; So she remains facing Hiroto and spits a stream of stinging venom at his eyes.
Meanwhile, the rustlers have chosen their cows from the herd and are about ready to start moving them away. Git along, little dogies…
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Venom Spit from 20 to 40 and get(s) a 38. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Style Wall from 35 to 60 and get(s) a 37. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Style Wall from 35 to 60 and get(s) a 49. - Rolled by: Sousa
[NPC System]: BurlyBob roll(s) Earth Style Wall from 35 to 60 and get(s) a 54. - Rolled by: Sousa
COMBAT: Hiroto focuses 2292 stamina to turn it into 2000 usable chakra!
RPCOMBAT: Hiroto defends against with a INTUITIVE-ACTION…52
«OOC» Hiroto says, "…"
Hiroto was running out of time to deal with this woman. Could he maybe stick her into the ground, and then run after the others. Now would have been a good time for a netted arrow. Anyhow the snake lady after getting struck again spits out some venom towards his face. He moves as the venom comes towards him having it go right past where his face now lies, and he pulls out another arrow. He had to deal with her if he could, so he would fire another forked arrow at her leg, and finish this time with two charged arrows instead of one.
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with DISRUPTIVE-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 37
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with POWER-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 22
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with POWER-ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 24
COMBAT: Hiroto finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Sousa's turn.
The burly merc-nin curses as Arika gets away from his strikes again. When she retaliates with wind, he brings up an earthen wall to protect himself, but not before the first one gets through and slices his upper arm. DX The merc-nin breathes heavily for a moment and reevaluates his position. "Okay…you wanna play tag? Fine, we'll play tag…BUT I GET TO BE 'IT' FIRST! RRRAAAARRGHH!!!" There is the sound of scuffling on the far side of the wall, as though the burly man is clambering over it to pounce at Arika…but nope, a few seconds later it becomes apparent he's running full-tilt in the other direction. <.<;
COMBAT: Sousa finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Arika's turn.
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Slippery Dodge 2 from 25 to 45 and get(s) a 35. - Rolled by: Sousa
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Woo."
[NPC System]: SlitherSally roll(s) Slippery Dodge 2 from 25 to 45 and get(s) a 40. - Rolled by: Sousa
«INK» Arika muses… "Should I chase him?" :|a
«OOC» Hiroto says, "The cows though. D:"
And, same old song for the hebi-nin lady. Another pin, another ouchy power shot, another final arrow dodged. She decides to fall back on her final plan… "I SURRENDER!!!" The snake-lady prostrates herself on the ground with her arms outstretched and lies still. Hey, hoping the enemy is merciful is a valid survival strategy too, especially when things are getting bleak. :P
Oh, and the rustlers are now heading off at a tangent with their chosen cows. Riding off into the sunset…
«INK» Arika says, "Who're the random rustlers? D:"
«INK» Arika says, "Oh, I see"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "The people who split off earlier. :P"
RPCOMBAT: Arika defends against with a INK-SCOUT-I…33
«OOC» Hiroto has Tenshi follow them.
«INK» Arika doesn't know if she noticed them :|a
«OOC» Hiroto says, "WHat rank is Ink Scout?"
«INK» Arika says, "D"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Dang your stats make it have about the same roll range as Hayato Senses."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "A C."
«OOC» Sousa says, "Well, they were in plain sight when they arrived, so unless Arika's totally forgotten about them, it's pretty unlikely she can't turn around and spot them again. X)"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "They within range still"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "?"
«OOC» Sousa says, "Quite. They've only just begun driving away a few cows for each group."
«OOC» Hiroto nods.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "If I used my Forked arrows and fired them, or just stuck them into the ground over the snake womans limbs would it stick there, and would I need a roll for either?"
«OOC» Sousa says, "Sticking them into the ground would be easy enough, but that wouldn't do much to keep her there long-term. The ground isn't hard enough for that."
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Well I figured as much… I just didn't know if she would willingly stay. Probably not, and she would get away, but I have no solution besides maybe knocking her out."
«INK» Arika muses
«INK» Arika says, "How many are there? Poachers, I mean"
«OOC» Sousa says, "Hmm, about five in each group I suppose. They're small potatoes, more capable at herding than fighting."
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 54
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 2 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 39
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 3 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 53
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 4 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 38
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 5 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 39
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 1 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 51
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 2 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 38
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 3 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 55
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 4 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 40
COMBAT: Arika attacks target 5 with MACROBURST with a roll of: 45
«INK» Arika says, "That range"
Arika huffs a bit as the man starts to run away. "Yer not playing tag right!" she calls to him. But well.. She'd forget about him for now. The girl instead remembers that there are still a few poachers about, so she makes a few handseals so that each poacher would have a burst of wind trying to slam down onto them, forcing them to their knees so that they can't get away with Suna's cows! Gosh, the nerve of some people :|
COMBAT: Arika finishes her turn.
COMBAT: It is now Hiroto's turn.
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Ummm… So there are steal others who are not being attacked?"
«OOC» Hiroto changes steal to sill.
«OOC» Hiroto changes steal to still.
«OOC» Sousa says, "Yes, there was a group nearer to you that still needs dealing with."
«OOC» Hiroto eyes his non AoE attacks…. "Take prisoner Snake lady to see her boss, or save more cows.
«OOC» Hiroto poses.
They were just mercenaries so maybe the could leave them alone, but…. to risky. Someone possibly hired them, so who could that be. Hiroto watches Arika hopefully deal with the small fry near the cows. Except there are multiple groups. He would watch the snake lady, but his mission was to save the cows. If she ran she ran, and he had not time to deal with her over the others. He pulls three arrows out and fires them at the nearest three bandit folk.
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 21
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 27
COMBAT: Hiroto attacks target 1 with ARCHER-SHOT with a roll of: 30
COMBAT: Hiroto finishes his turn.
COMBAT: It is now Sousa's turn.
Well, that's pretty much that. The rustlers, aside from the few nin amongst them, are pretty much just disgruntled former ranchers who lost their jobs one way or another, some more deservingly than others, and took the offered job to herd some cows that didn't belong to their employer. They're cowed (har-dee-har) pretty easily by Arika's wind blast knocking them down, and Hiroto's group surrenders quickly too after a couple of them are felled by arrows. O.O; Of course, the snake-lady does slither away into the endless grasses once she's no longer being watched. e.e The burly earth-user got away too, but they'll both probably think twice about doing shady work in the Land of Wind again.
Oh, and Sousa? Naturally he had no problem dealing with the third group of would-be rustlers. Rumor has it one of them was left with a permanent twitch of reflexively wretching whenever he heard a cow from then on. c.c
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
«INK» Arika says, "Yay"
«OOC» Hiroto says, "Yay indeed"
«OOC» Hiroto should have sent Tenshi to watch those two.
B-rank: A herd of specially bred dairy cows is slated to be distributed to various ranches around the Land of Wind, providing breeding stock. It is known for a fact that unscrupulous business interests from other nations have hired mercenaries, including some shinobi, to capture all or part of this herd, so protecting it has been assigned as a B-rank mission. Defend the ranchers and their herd from assault.
Break out the saddles and spurs, it's time for a cattle drive! A special type of dairy cow has been successfully developed and shown to be highly productive and safe after a long period of careful breeding and testing. A herd of such cows is being driven about the Land of Wind, selling just a few to each ranch for reproductive purposes, and a B-rank mission has been ordered to protect them on their journey. Are these cows really that valuable? Well, yes, and more importantly, there's been solid intel gathered that unscrupulous business ventures have hired mercs to steal some of the bovines. :o It's not so much a matter of if, but when.
Sousa examines the nearest cow during a stop to let them rest and graze. "I am not particularly familiar with bovine physiology, but it appears to me as though they've managed to incorporate some camelidae features into the phenome," he remarks. "That should be quite valuable in terms of their resilience to the local climate."
Arika has neither saddles nor spurs because horses don't do particularly well in the Land of Wind. It's much easier to travel by foot, at least for short distance, and Arika has enough stamina to keep her going across the whole of the desert! … Not really, but she's certainly energetic. And today is no exception, as she's bouncing around and peeking at all these weird new cows. "They dun look /that/ different, though!" she says, despite not really knowing what an actual cow looked like. How different were they, anyway? Surely not terribly different! The girl peeks over at Sousa and stares blankly at him for a few moments while he spills whatever nonsense he likes, only offering a confused nod. "H…. Hai……" she says unenthusiastically before bounding over to see what Hiroto is up to!
Hiroto follows along the whole time bored like, but he is keeping his eyes out. Tenshi would stay up in the air doing the same thing. Eventually they would have stopped, and he looks around as Sousa spoke. He had no idea what he was saying most of the time. He was smart, but more so a strategic smart. Well a little bit of both, but nothing special for now. Eventually Arika comes his way, and he smiles at the opportunity to distract himself. "Hey Arika. Having fun?"
"No indeed, they are still quite definitely cows," Sousa replies. "Speciation has not occurred, which is fortunate because the entire idea is to spread their advantageous features through the existing cattle population." Sousa turns from the cow and peers at the horizon. "One…two…three…three approaching groups, if I am not mistaken," he murmurs. Sousa glances at the others, who look to be as alert to the situation as he is. "They appear to be hedging their bets by attacking from multiple sides," Sousa says. "A classic strategy, made all the more effective by the fact that they need only succeed in snatching a sample from one front to fulfill their purposes. We shall have to split our forces and engage each group." Sousa dashes off to intercept what looks like the most formidable of the rustling parties.
The group heading in on Arika's side is led by a burly man with a bushy black beard. He leers at Arika when they get close. "Skinflints must've gone cheap on their muscle. Could've saved their precious steers if they'd ponied up the cash to hire me instead. EARTH CRUSH!!!" The man slams a fist into the dirt, and the ground beneath Arika's feet splits and suddenly swings upward in two large chunks to squash her in the middle. Meanwhile, the rustlers try to head on around the conflict toward the cows.
Hiroto's group turns out to be headed by a slender woman with long, straight hair covering one of her eyes. She looks at Hiroto with disdain. "This chick shouldn't have ventured out of the nest so soon. Well, all the better for me!" Her one visible eye narrows into a slit, and a paralyzing sensation of killer intent washes over Hiroto. As with the other group, the guys who are there as rustlers more than fighters attempt to make for the cows.
"Hai! Well, sorta. It's kinda boring jus' watching all'a cows, though," she grumbles. No sooner did she speak when Sousa alerted the group to approaching enemies. "Oh! Yay~" The girl would send out a few scouts in front of her before she grinned to Hiro and disappeared with a burst of wind. When she stops in front of the big burly man, she crosses her arms over her chest and tries to puff herself up and look all threatening. … The attempt might look a bit comical, admittedly. "It'd be silly t' hire you! You'd jus' steal the cows!" she states, grumpy. And then he punches the ground, and Arika wasn't exactly expecting for the earth to shoot up. She ends up getting smashed, or at least her foot since she wasn't fast enough to get out of the way. "Meanie!" she pouts at him. The girl wouldn't be able to move as fast, now! She huffs again, then makes a few handseals. With the last one, she would throw three kunai-like blades of wind at the man. The blades were invisible, though, unless the stranger is a Hyuuga or something.
Hiroto nods with a smile. "Yeah… Well seems we got enemies… Let's go." Hiroto hops up pulling his bow into his hand. He spots the woman in front of him, and eyes her. Just as he goes to pull the arrow from his quiver he gets hit by some sort of genjutsu. With Tenshi's making some bird sounds it brings him out of it quicker. It allows him to curve away only getting hit near his shoulder. "Fancy your genjutsu don't you?" He pulls a forked arrow from his quiver firing it in a way to hopefully hold her into the ground. That would allow him to quickly move firing first with extra chakra infused into the bow, and the second one with slightly less so hopefully one would hit.
The burly merc ninja laughs maliciously. "Maybe I would steal 'em! All depends on how ornery I'm feelin', and how much better an offer I get! You're smart for a squirt, too bad you're gonna be — whoa!" >.<; The merc puts up a dome of earth over himself just in time to protect himself from Arika's wind attacks. "Strong for a squirt too. Looks like I can't afford to play around after all." >( The merc reaches into the earth and pulls out a chunk in the shape of a crude club. Hoping to take advantage of Arika's injured foot, he charges in and swings the heavy weapon at her.
Hiroto's opponent thrusts at him with a kunai. "'Like' has nothing to do with it, a survivor uses all tools at — ARRRGH!!!" DX When Hiroto stretched his bow, the lean woman flexed her body sinuously to avoid the incoming shot, but it took her by surprise that he aimed at her leg. Held in place by the arrow, she takes the second shot full in the ribs, although she manages to twist around the last one. She snaps the flight end of the arrow protruding through her calf and jerks her leg off the shaft, then lurches at Hiroto. "Arrogant fledgling, I will consume you WHOLE!" >E The woman's neck stretches a short distance and she opens her mouth with dripping fangs to lunge at Hiroto's shoulder.
Meanwhile, the rustling groups have each reached the herd and started separating a few cows from it. They can't get away too fast with their prizes, of course, but the Suna nin can't be taking forever with their adversaries if they want to preserve their client's R&D investment.
Arika avoids the club of earth by simply dashing off to the side. "Play?" she asks, perking up. "I like to play! Can we play… umm… Tag? I guess that'd be suiting." She nods. "I'll be it, first!" Then she tries to slice at the man again, using three strikes of the same attack. The girl isn't entirely sure if she'd hit the man, but that's why she tried three times!
Hiroto quickly hops away from her neck. Next he decides to use a little trick he practiced. He pulls a Forked arrow, and holds it in place before throwing a kunai up into the air. It is mostly a lob, and he fires at the kunai causing the arrow to bounce off of it in a way to fall down onto the woman's outstretched neck. Once it hopefully stuck her neck into the ground he pulled another sharpened arrow loaded with chakra and fired. He had to finish this quickly to stop the others who are stealing the cows. He doesn't want to kill, but it is a part of the job. Just in case his first one was missed he would fire the second one with less chakra as a back up.
The burly merc-nin tries to shield himself from Arika's wind slices with his earthen weapon, but every one of them slips past. "Graaaa! You're an annoyance, girl! I'm going to smash that cheeky little face in!" >.< Gripping the earth club, he pours more chakra into it. Spikes grow out of the end of it, and he swings it around for a powerful overhead smash.
Arika avoids the incoming attack, pouting at the man. "You dun wanna play?" She asks, giving him big puppy eyes to try and convince him to do such. Well, that didn't work very well because she was forced to avoid another pound of earth thrown in her direction. "Okay.." she pouts, the girl forming a few more slices of wind-based chakra to throw at him. They would be fairly accurate, too. The blades being invisible made it hard to avoid them, so hopefully they hit! Arika lets herself get a bit distracted in the process, glancing back to make sure that Hiro was okay.
As before, the snake-lady is caught by Hiroto's trick arrow and the subsequent extra-powered shot, but manages to slip away from the last arrow. She hisses balefully and slides sideways around Hiroto while planning her next move. Ordinarily when she's got two arrows sticking out of her, she'd decide that things aren't going well enough to risk continuing…but with the opponent being a ranged specialist, running is itself a very risky proposition. >.<; So she remains facing Hiroto and spits a stream of stinging venom at his eyes.
Meanwhile, the rustlers have chosen their cows from the herd and are about ready to start moving them away. Git along, little dogies…
Hiroto was running out of time to deal with this woman. Could he maybe stick her into the ground, and then run after the others. Now would have been a good time for a netted arrow. Anyhow the snake lady after getting struck again spits out some venom towards his face. He moves as the venom comes towards him having it go right past where his face now lies, and he pulls out another arrow. He had to deal with her if he could, so he would fire another forked arrow at her leg, and finish this time with two charged arrows instead of one.
The burly merc-nin curses as Arika gets away from his strikes again. When she retaliates with wind, he brings up an earthen wall to protect himself, but not before the first one gets through and slices his upper arm. DX The merc-nin breathes heavily for a moment and reevaluates his position. "Okay…you wanna play tag? Fine, we'll play tag…BUT I GET TO BE 'IT' FIRST! RRRAAAARRGHH!!!" There is the sound of scuffling on the far side of the wall, as though the burly man is clambering over it to pounce at Arika…but nope, a few seconds later it becomes apparent he's running full-tilt in the other direction. <.<;
And, same old song for the hebi-nin lady. Another pin, another ouchy power shot, another final arrow dodged. She decides to fall back on her final plan… "I SURRENDER!!!" The snake-lady prostrates herself on the ground with her arms outstretched and lies still. Hey, hoping the enemy is merciful is a valid survival strategy too, especially when things are getting bleak. :P
Oh, and the rustlers are now heading off at a tangent with their chosen cows. Riding off into the sunset…
Arika huffs a bit as the man starts to run away. "Yer not playing tag right!" she calls to him. But well.. She'd forget about him for now. The girl instead remembers that there are still a few poachers about, so she makes a few handseals so that each poacher would have a burst of wind trying to slam down onto them, forcing them to their knees so that they can't get away with Suna's cows! Gosh, the nerve of some people :|
They were just mercenaries so maybe the could leave them alone, but…. to risky. Someone possibly hired them, so who could that be. Hiroto watches Arika hopefully deal with the small fry near the cows. Except there are multiple groups. He would watch the snake lady, but his mission was to save the cows. If she ran she ran, and he had not time to deal with her over the others. He pulls three arrows out and fires them at the nearest three bandit folk.
Well, that's pretty much that. The rustlers, aside from the few nin amongst them, are pretty much just disgruntled former ranchers who lost their jobs one way or another, some more deservingly than others, and took the offered job to herd some cows that didn't belong to their employer. They're cowed (har-dee-har) pretty easily by Arika's wind blast knocking them down, and Hiroto's group surrenders quickly too after a couple of them are felled by arrows. O.O; Of course, the snake-lady does slither away into the endless grasses once she's no longer being watched. e.e The burly earth-user got away too, but they'll both probably think twice about doing shady work in the Land of Wind again.
Oh, and Sousa? Naturally he had no problem dealing with the third group of would-be rustlers. Rumor has it one of them was left with a permanent twitch of reflexively wretching whenever he heard a cow from then on. c.c
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
