Anyone magical will notice the barrier surrounding the five-block-square area of downtown Mitakihara. It doesn't prevent entry to them, but it does prevent entry by normals--so inside the barrier is oddly quiet... or... it would be. Instead, there's a scream, or the lingering echo of a scream, the sense that someone within the area is in pain. And, close by as well.
A husky voice is murmuring something, but it's basically inaudible before the scream dies down. Still, there's a sense, almost like a fog in the air, that something Bad(tm) has happened here. A heavy sense, resolution mixed with a touch of regret. And as Hinote comes upon the scene, he'll see a pink-haired figure in ornate, armor-like clothing, a sword sheathed by her side, and an ornate book floating in front of her, the last wisps of energy flowing from a crumpled figure to it.
A barrier? Hinote had encounterd this before. It was the night that.. Jewel Seed thing came and turned a cat gigantic. Also. The Waldians kept the cat. It's probably been the best aquisition the team has made since being jerks on Earth. Regardless, Hino shifts into his Guardian Knight armor in an alley and jumps up into the oddly quiet barrier. Except. Well. The scream. He can hear the direction it's coming from.
He makes for the rooftops. It's easier if he just leaps across them and take a straight line to the source, rather than travese empty alleys in the barrier.
Hino is expecting, and hoping, this might be one of those Jewel Seeds. They were /powerful/, and could be a great source of power for the Waldians! Instead...
He comes upon someone draining energy into a book. He draws his sword, and leaps down onto streeet level. In front of the odd armored girl. And her energy draining. His longsword is pointed at a downward angle. He isn't pointing it at her. Yet.
"What is that you're doing. And why?" he asks.
The book snaps closed, and floats to a position where it would be otherwise tucked under one of Signum's arms (not her sword arm). The crumpled figure stirs briefly, then slumps with a defeated, barely audible moan. Her voice is identifiable by the cool huskiness as the voice that was barely audible before. "That," she says, as she turns away from the crumpled person and begins walking away, "is none of your business." Taking her eyes off the young Guardian Knight for a moment, she looks as if to be concentrating for a moment--as if she were having a conversation with someone, though it isn't audible in any way.
Subsequently, the book hovers away from Signum and, glowing with a dark aura, disappears, transitioning itself to someone else, or somewhere else. No, no Jewel Seeds here--but that book was definitely a book of Power, even stronger than the Belkan Knight before the Guardian.
Cool blue eyes study Hino's form, and she half-smiles, not quite a smirk. "A swordfighter," she muses to herself, "... and ready to fight?"
Blue eyes meet the Guardian's. "I take it your intent is to fight me?" she asks, bluntly.
Guardian Hino looks down at the figure. She's drained. But not dead. She'll recover. She's not in immediate danger at the moment. His eyes peek back up at the older woman with the book. He can't sense power. But somethings wrong with that book. He doesn't want that book. It feels like the jerk like the mask. It means it's useless to him. He's particularly dissapointed about the lack of a jewel seed here. He'll have to remember this for the next time he encounters a barrier.
He's spoken too. "One does not draw a sword unless they intend to use it." he replies. "I sense ill will in your intent." he says.
"But that's okay. So is mine." he says. Just a little hurt in his voice. "I'm after energy. You seem to have plenty to spare." he says as his longsword lights on fire. He brings it up, pointing at Signum. A spark ignites from the red-orange gem on the hit as a burst of fire expels itself from the tip towards Signum. He does not yell out an attack name, just trying to give Signum a nice burst of flame off the bat. It's not terribly powerful right now.
The burst of flame washes over Signum's position; just as it impacts she puts on a burst of speed and she flashes upwards, ending up about ten feet off the ground. She's there only for a moment, then muses slightly upon the words of the young Guardian. "A truth few understand," she replies, briefly, and then she's moving. She's -fast-, just a blur, coming in at a downward angle, a straight line that will see her -almost- landing in front of the Guardian, blade cocked.
She slashes twice--the first smashing attack aimed to slam the longsword out of position, the second a followup, coming back across, a horizontal body cut. As her opponent starts out simple, so does she--testing his defenses, gauging his skill. To determine the proper level of response.
Guardian Hino frowns a little. She's fast. He can keep up with her positioning at least--- he manages to keep her in sight, and she comes down upon his sword. She knocks it out of postion. But as she comes in for the other sweep- he holds his palm out and calls out.
"IGNITION!"
A bolt of fire flies out in mid smack from his armored palm- in hopes of catching her in the moment of the second attack coming in. It still follows through and it knocks him back against the ground a bit on his feet. He's still standing however. He re-positions his long sword, and begins to wait for Signums next strike as he watches her movements. She's fast. The key to this will be making sure she knows where she's coming from next attack- to not let her out of sight for a moment.
Not only is Signum fast, but her reactions are fast as well. A single moment before the impact of that firebolt, a pink, crystalline shield forms in front of Signum, and the bolt splashes against that. In lieu of damaging Signum directly, it does drain some energy, and the Belkan Knight seems to come to a decision. She flies again, floating away just far enough to make her next actions 'safe'. "Laevatein! Cartridge Load!" she snaps, and, in a metallic, rasping voice, her Armed Device responds.
>> IGNITION!! <<
The purple, perforated housing at the back of the sword racks back and forth, spitting out a now-empty cartridge that Signum catches out of the air and pockets with a magician's touch. At the application of a touch of her mind, the blade of Laevatein sheathes itself in flame.
"HIRYU.. ISSEN!!" she calls, as she flashes forward again, favoring close combat as she drives another two-slash combination at the Guardian, the flaming blade slashing out horizontally then vertically--each impact, if it impacts, exploding with that fiery energy, like a directed charge.
It takes Hino a moment. But with those motions... the talking weapon. It's similar athestics to what he's seen before. Weapons like Mister Black or Miss White.... or the Storm Knight, use. He doesn't know much more than that. The one person he's on speaking terms about it- Suzuki, actually doesn't know much about her device.
At least this one isn't responding in german?
He takes the hit head on. Hinote goes flying down the street. It's probably a good thing the barrier is up, Else he'd had left a Hino-sized hole in the building he crashed into.
He grits his teeth. He steadies his sword. And then leaps into the air. He kicks off the side of a building, and attempts to come down at the device users from overhead. "Your conviction feels very strong!" he says as he comes down for a quick flaming sword strike.
"What is it you fight for?" he asks. He'll need to be more weary of that cartridge system. That hurt. A lot.
The flame on the blade of Laevatein dies out after the second explosion. Signum knows she scored a good hit, but knows, just as equally well, that the attack wasn't one to bring her opponent down. She doesn't consider him a foe--not yet--right now, merely an obstacle, if a particularly skilled one. She clamps down on enjoying herself--this is business, nothing more.
As Hino comes down on her with that strike she deflects with her own blade, the crashing of metal temporarily robbing her of an opportunity to speak; she binds his blade with hers, then says, between the crossed blades, "What I fight for is not your concern. My reasons are my own and my own only." With a mighty push she forces Hino away as she flies back as well, streaking up into the sky. Now twenty feet or so up in the air, she raises her blade once more.
"Laevatein! Schlangeform!" she calls, before snapping the weapon downwards to point at Hino. As before, the weapon responds.
>> JAWOHL! << it replies, and as she snaps the blade down, the blade begins... to separate, into several razor-edged sections, bound through the central axis with a long metallic cord. It seems to have a range far more than it should, as the hissing, whipping blade is easily enough to reach Hino's position, flicking and snapping.
Oh. It is speaking in German. Well. Crap he thinks. Suzuki's device was like that, and hers was some sort of insane power wise. And this user seems to actually know how to /use it/ unlike Suzuki. Was this the power of a device in trained hands!? It frightened him a little.
A little more when he realized the owner of one of these appeared to be a third grader like the night of the jewel seed.
Also, Signum's sword now becomes a whip.
He was not planning for a sword to become a whip, because swords are not whips. They are swords! AND NOT WHIPS. That is to say, Guardian Hino is caught hilarously off guard as he gets sliced across his magical metal armor. A deep scratch left in it. It hurts.
Hino grabs his sword with two hands now. Instead of one.
"You should not be ashamed of what you fight for!" he insists. "If you truly belive in it, you will singest from the highest mountains!" he insists as the blade suddenly ignites into a full fledge fire above him as he hefts it high.
"I fight for justice. And for my Princess. And your energy... will be put to good use!"
As the conviction in his voice swells up, the fire from his sword takes the shape of some sort of ridicolous small dragon.
"RAGING FIRE.... DRAGON!" yells Hino, as he swings the sword downward at Signum, unleashing a strong powerful roaring dragon shaped fireball in her direction.
In an instant, Hino upgrades his status from an obstacle. "PANZERSCHILD!!" roars Signum, and that pink crystal energy shield forms in front of her again--and it almost withstands the blast, almost. There's a splintering sound, and the fireball bursts through the shield. Moments later, Signum is visible again--crisped, to say the least. And, though her cool blue gaze remains largely unchanged, clearly still ready to fight... even if at a very large disadvantage. It isn't in her nature, after all, to give up, whether she should or not.
Slowly she descends to street level, making as if to take an offensive stance--when a voice calls from above, urgent and female. "SIGNUM!!" the voice cries, from a spot of green high up in the air, and then a growing swell of power pinpointed from the same spot. The communication continues telepathically, as Shamal lectures her commander. << We can't afford any losses right now!! I'm casting a flash bomb for cover!! >>
As that pulse of power grows and grows, Signum's stance relaxes. Her expression changes, as she looks at her opponent, a note of respect in her gaze that wasn't there before. "I regret to say that we cannot finish this battle as it should be finished," and her voice is completely sincere in that regard.
"The next time I meet, I promise, we will see this through to the end," she replies, then, as that point of light grows and starts descending, she says, "You should leave now as well. I am sorry."
That point accelerates downwards, and in just a few seconds it will be a blinding flash of energy--and whether or not Hino is there, she'll be gone.
Guardian Hino what!? Suddenly there's a flash. And Signum is gone. He grits his teeth. The barrier will probably dissapear soon. "This was finished, you.......!" he gnashes his teeth in frustration. Nrg. he finally cornered someone for energy and she still managed to run away with the thrashing he gave.
He doesn't worry too much on that. He knows what happens when the Barrier fades.
He doesn't want to be that weird knight guy who appeared in the middle of main street.
He makes a jump for the rooftops.
...at least he's not returning completely empty handed- thanks to last night's encounter with Tuxedo Kamen. That makes him feel a little better at least.