Thread: For Your Smile ((Velvet Stars + Ecchi Kunoichi))

The sound of a third person calling out reached the girl she spared a moment to look in the direction it came from, only to see a hint of another human ducking out of sight. Due to the distance between them, she couldn't tell who the person was, but she replied anyway. Please, stay under cover! I'll take care of this! She remained on her guard, cautiously eyeing the massive creature that hovered over the roof of the building next door. Without needing to move and in complete disregard of the space between the structures, its sinuous neck uncoiled, bridging the gap until its head was roughly on eye level with hers. She swallowed hard, realizing that her height and the length of its teeth were about the same. Then a deep rumble, like distant thunder, emanated from the being's mouth. This wasn't a growl, but normal speech anyone in the area would likely hear what it said, simply because of the volume. Child of man, whom are you to speak thus? You hold no sway over the likes of me. A gust of wind powerful enough to blow her hair and clothing straight back, as if trapped in a wind tunnel, rushed from its nostrils. It took a moment for her to realize it had just snorted in dismissal. If you are wise, you will not interfere with my doings. For a moment, she actually appeared unsure - a distinct contrast to her confident approach at the lake. Then she gathered herself and pointed at the massive creature with the wand. It looked for all the world like a child threatening an elephant with a toothpick. If you didn't want someone to try and stop you, you shouldn't have done something to put people in danger! And I'm not going to stand back and let you get away with it! Without wasting a moment of time more, she leaped backward, placing greater distance between the creature and herself. This gave her time to raise the wand high, where it caught the light and seemed to gather it in. Then, in a burst of rainbow colors, it shot outward as a hail of bright beams with arrow-like points. The ones that didn't strike the creature dug deep into the thick concrete of the roof then each one flickered a few times before popping out of existence. The ones that did land...burst apart with the speed and ease of a person blowing out a candle, doing nothing at all besides releasing a torrent of pinging sounds. There wasn't anything wrong with her attack, she realized after the initial shock. It had been performed right, it just wasn't powerful enough to harm her opponent. In the time it took for that to sink in, another blast of air nearly knocked her off her feet. She gritted her teeth and clenched her eyes nearly shut in an attempt to hold her ground through the dust and debris that wind flung into her face. As a result, she didn't see the attack hidden within the stream of wind. When it faded, she did turn, but only to sprint to a taller structure nearby. Maybe the problem was in where she was aiming, not what she was doing. Certainly something this big had a weakness somewhere! It was while she was running that she felt it - a short, stinging pain across her skin that hurt as much as a papercut. This was followed by a sudden brush of cool, damp air across her chest. A quick glance downward revealed that the softer fabric of her shirt had been ripped open in long, horizontal slashes, leaving her jacket tattered and large holes within the garment itself. The edges were different from the damage caused by the strange rain these were as even and smooth as if cut by sharp scissors. The only sign of the damage were thin marks across the bared skin of her chest, not even deep enough to bleed...but she had felt the impact of that wind. It would have been much worse if her clothing hadn't taken the majority of the blow. Even as she thought this, another attack struck her in mid-stride. This one did bowl her over, sending her tumbling in the air a moment before she crashed down with a thud. Oww... Instead of being on top of the small structure that hid this building's rooftop entrance, she had crumpled against the wall, a wash of sharp pain informing her that the wind wasn't an ordinary force of nature. That thing was controlling it somehow, using it against her...how could she beat something that turned the air she breathed into a weapon? To her horror, she didn't have a chance to think of a good idea she was barely starting to climb to her feet when one taloned foot slammed down on top of her. True terror filled her thoughts - it was going to crush her flat! But a second later, she realized that wasn't what it was doing. The talons had, instead, plowed into the concrete on either side of her. The creature's claws were of such a length where it could do so and only pin her there, rather than turning her into a human-shaped crater. With the weight of it bearing down on her chest, she couldn't use her wand at all, or move for that matter. Foolish child. It would be nothing for me to end your life if I so wished. I warned you - do not interfere, lest you pay the price... She struggled, trapped and helpless. Even if she moved her limbs, how could she keep it from just pressing down and crushing her? She had to distract it somehow, buy herself time... What...what are you? she gasped out at last. She never imagined that it would start laughing at her... Edited because I didn't mean to quote previous posts.