Bay 12 Games Forum

_{"I mean.....they're after the treasure, I'm also going after it, and they're willing to hurt innocent people to get it. I-I'm not too happy about it, but I am up for it."}

_{"I...uh...I wouldn't know. They kinda look like a girl to me, but...."}
Karin rubs the back of her head awkwardly.

4G, heal Liam

"Good grief."
Aya, clearly exasperated by Joachim's antics, resolves to take the situation seriously. After all, being impaled by various implements of murder was not quite conducive to a life on the high road of travelling. It was about time, anyway, to get going.

Just a small part of her power to transform. Not enough to fully transform into her true, Laguz form. Just enough to show off a little power. It was something she'd learned a long while ago; travelling on four feet was faster than two, but going into full Laguz form was draining and exhausting, not something you wanted when you were travelling alone. By funnelling just a little bit of her natural strength, Aya had figured out she could stay in her wolf form indefinitely, without having to transform back, at the cost of giving up some of her strength.

Much more handy than eating flowers and taking long naps afterwards when you just needed to hop across a large gap or take down a nice deer, anyway.

16-M, halfshift

Minato does so, trying to channel a Regalia, any Regalia, into his fist. Yes, Rho Aias would do for now. Clenching his fist and concentrating, he manifests Rho Aias for a brief moment, the shield's outlines forming in golden lines over his fist, before the outlines constrict, squeezing the shield down, shattering it, before covering his fist in the shards as they melted into a light, shimmering aura over his hand.

Minato, meanwhile, concentrates on trying to reinforce the shield from afar.

The Shield. The very concept that Minato resounded with. Not a tool of war, not a weapon, but a bulwark to protect others with. The Shield was a poor weapon, but it was what it stood for that Minato utilised. The Shield was the left hand of a knight, one half of a knight's prowess. A knight was supposed to be loyal, to protect others, to place others above themselves. That was why Durandal resounded with Minato so much; Durandal might have been a sword, but it was a sword whose legend had been in the service of defending others, whose final wielder had died in the service of holding back an incomparably larger force from his country. It was what Minato wanted to be; the dignified, unmoving bulwark, the knight that slew the dragons that preyed upon the weak.

Rho Aias and Durandal. The unbreakable shield and the sword of the very model of knighthood. All of Minato's other weapons were weapons that resounded with parts of his personality, but not nearly as much; the Luin Celtchar his hot-headed nature, the chains of Gleipnir his desire to hold back the demons that plagued his friends, Gungnir his unerring, direct nature. The weapons Minato could master, they were the ones that resounded with him the most. That was how Requiems worked, as far as he picked up; they worked from the spirit, from the mind, and Minato's spirit had manifested as weapons because he desperately wanted to be a knight, drawing from the very models that he idolised.

But what use of a knight was he? He couldn't protect Faith from humiliation. He couldn't protect Noriko from her suffering. God knew what Yuki was going through. He was hotblooded. Impudent. Perverted. Rude. Nothing like the knights he idolised. What good was he?

No. He refused to let doubt pull him down. He needed to be a rock.

He had to keep going.

He wasn't a knight yet. But he could be. The power to improve, even a little bit, and be better than the man he was a moment before.

He funnels what he can into reinforcing the shield, golden lines forming but sparking out, his power waning as the distance increased. He knew his power wouldn't quite be enough, not yet; he'd only just started learning how to project from afar. But he had to give it a try.

Otherwise he couldn't become strong.

"Again?"

"Really? Huh. Alright."
Not that hard after all. Maybe he was cut out for this.

This time, Minato pours quite a bit more power into reinforcing the plate, his mind's eye seeing it as yet another Regalia, another of the countless shields Minato could use, another of the shields his heart was attuned to.