This roleplay thread is dedicated to characters who have a beef with each other, and don't want to follow the fight rules (because I have yet to list them). You can find out why this thread exists here.

Archimedes had left a note for Garret and Ma'akus in the event they would arrive to the training arena before archimedes returned
the note: went to the square for a bit, thought i would see if any new faces has arrived. there are target dummies everywhere so warm up on them if you wish but if you get impatient just make some sort of signal, I'll know it is you.

~Archimedes

PS. I'll let you know why i named my halberd "storm herald" before we part

Crafter and Ditzy stepped onto the field, ready to begin further testing.

"Alright Ditzy, I need to see how well my defenses hold against lightning based attacks, so I want you to try and strike me with a bolt." Crafter said after pulling the string and donning the armor.

"Yeah, that diamond dog and dragon could do some real damage if you can't defend from their attacks." Ditzy agreed, flying up and fetching a cloud. Once the ice shield was up, Ditzy started to stomp on the cloud, causing lighting to burst out and strike the ice.

Storm Blitz settled down nearby to watch. He'd somehow managed to lose track of the gryphon from earlier.

Having decided to do a bit of training, Garret had taken the scenic route, letting the Pegasus>>551785 from the bar get ahead of him. Landing directly behind him as quietly as possible, the Gryphon put his beak next to the pony ear, "Boo!"

551787

Storm Blitz flicked an ear back when Garret landed, his many years of experience fighting creepy little bloodsucking brain worms keeping his senses many times sharper than was probably necessary for daily life.

He was not at all surprised by the Gryphon.

Turning casually, Storm Blitz blandly said: "Hello there."

551802 ((Lol, "bloodsucking brain worms " wut...))
"Ahh, you're no fun," He said with a grin. Then he noticed the 551766 mare, Ditzy if memory served, from the bar stomping on a cloud above her mate. Curious as to why, not willing to risk getting hit by the resultant lightining, the Gryphon flew up to join her, hovering just above the clouds surface, "So uh, any particular reason you're trying to electrocute your husband?"

551810
"We're testing how well the ice shield can deflect lightning." Ditzy said calmly.

551812
"Oh, cool." patting his holster, & with a reckless smile, "Hey, in that case, you think he'd mind if I tried this baby out on it? I've never had a chance to use it on anything more than fish, before."

551821
Ditzy gave a shrug. "I don't see why not." she looked down to Crafter. "Hey Crafty, this griffon (right?) is going to help test."

551473

While waiting for the people from the library Ma'akus decides to play target practice with his bow. He doesn't seem to be having much luck as most of his shots appear to go wide of the mark. Strangely Ma'akus does not appeared annoyed or dissatisfied with this result.

551826 ((i think it's time for that friendly science now, don't you agree? I'll be over soon))

551824"Hahaha, Sweet!" Doing a midair flip into a dive, Garret (A Gryphon, yes) landed a few meters away from, where the pony he was going to be testing his weapon on was.
He reached his right talon back, popping the clip that kept the weapon from falling out whilst in motion. As he pulled out the heavy piece of Gryphon-tech, he remembered buying it when he learned about the Diamond Dog slavers, and how it had devolved from a self defense weapon, to a fancy fishing implement. Slowly, he placed it in front of him, lining his eyes up with the sight, placing Crafter dead center. The trigger depressed as smooth as always, unleashing a blinding light show of raw electricity towards the pony.

Garret began blinking, unable to see anything yet.

551829

(No Rush, Got a backlog of about 4 stories to catch up on.)

551832

Storm Blitz ducked behind a target bale, waiting for the blast to dissipate.

((Sorry for disappearing again.))

551832
As the dust settled, the ice dome (albeit heavily cracked) remained.
"I... I think that.... was a successful test..." Crafter panted after dropping the shield.

Skysong, his hoof now healed, decides to head to the training arena again, bringing his entire knife store of an arsenal. as he approaches, he sees a familiar face>>551842 ducking behind a target bale.

Shaking his head to speed up his vision clearing, Garret noticed all the cracks covering>>551843 Crafters shield, "Well, that was a lot more spectacular than I expected!" He began lauhging, ending with a happy squawk. "Hey, Storm Blitz>>551842, you're not afraid o f little lightning, are ya?"

551843>>551832 "damn, looks like i came just in time for the show" Archimedes walked into the training arena, halberd in hand like always "you ok there crafter? what did you just shoot him with garret?"

551843
Storm Blitz stuck his head up over the top, peering carefully to see if anything else was going to happen. Seeing the damage, Storm whistled.
"Daaaaaaamn," he called out. "That is one HELL of a shield, Crafter."

551854
"Afraid of lightning? I'm a pegasus!" Storm shouted back. "But I'm also smart enough to realize that getting hit by that would HURT." 

551851
Storm's ears flicked again and he turned to see Skysong approaching.
"Oh, it's you again," he said, slightly annoyed. "Hey, about yesterday: you realize that grabbing a pegasus like that could get them killed, right? It's different in battle, but if you're both on the same side, you really shouldn't do that."

551856 "I knew what I was doing. I've been redirecting throwing knives for years."

551854>>551855>>551856
"Well... it takes a TON of energy to keep up." Crafter heaved. "I need to power the generators with my own magic to even come close to having the power needed."

551856 "Haha, if it feels anything like natural lightning, I'd assume as much!"
551855 "That, my fine, Diamond Dog, companion, is the pinnacle of non-lethal, Gryphon lightning tech. Or, er, it was a few years ago, hehe, it's a bit outdated now, but it still gets the job done!"

551858 "Well then, if we have to face each other, I guess we'd be pretty well matched in that aspect. This thing can only fire once before I have to recharge it, either with a direct lightning bolt, or a claw crank.

551856>>551858 "you know, now im curious, how much abuse can that thing take before it is completely neglected? mind if i gave storm herald a few tries on it?"
551859 impressive, for an out dated model

551857
Storm Blitz sniffed. "Perhaps, but a pony is a sight heavier than a knife. I don't doubt you had confidence in your own skills, or else you wouldn't have attempted it, but that doesn't mean you should make a habit of it."

551858
"So if you're tired out, it stops working?" asked Storm Blitz, cocking an eyebrow. "That seems like a pretty significant weakness."

551859
"You wouldn't happen to know how many jewls that thing gives off upon contact, would you?"
(1 jewl = 1 joule = unit of energy)
(1 joule is equal to the energy expended (or work done) in applying a force of one newton through a distance of one metre (1 newton metre or N·m)

551860
"Well it won't take that much power to redirect lightning strikes, ice is water after all."

551864 "My parents raised me to be a pacifist, what was I supposed to do? I wanted to resolve the conflict painlessly, if at all possible. Oh, and redirecting you wasn't that difficult, just a change in momentum. I'm used to stopping knives; all I did was nudge you. Geez."

((Gonna be afk for a while, got ortho))

551867
((Have fun? (I have no idea what ortho is). ))
"Mm. Still dangerous and I'm still annoyed. But whatever, let us leave it behind us. You seem like a good pony to know better, and it would be stupid of me to let a possible friendship slip by on something is ultimately pointless. I never caught your name. What is it?"

551866 "oh, you are sure on that theory? how about a test?"

Tired of exploring the sprawling city, Liu decides to visit the arena in the hopes of getting sone training done. It had been a week of travel out of his schedule and he planned on making up most of it today.

551868 ((orthodontist? for my braces))

"I'm Skysong," the white-furred unicorn said, holding out a sky-blue hoof.

((He holds out sky-blue hooves a lot, doesn't he? Anyway gtg bye))

551864
"Not necessarily, it's powered by two magic-electric generators. I need to use my own magic when I use the shields" Crafter explained.

551864 ((jewl, that made me chuckle.))
"Oh, about 90000 jewls, or something like that. I can't remember. Maybe less, seeing as I haven't charged it in a while.. 551866 & that is true, but I don't rely on it, it's, backup, mostly if I'm outnumbered & can't fly away for some reason.

551873
"Storm Blitz." A bit of friendly conversation occurs.

551879
((Actually, Wikipedia tells me that watts = volts^2/10^8 ohms. Given that forming lightning requires at least 3,000,000 volts, and assuming that your blast takes no more than 1 second to get there, I would say that you pulled off no more than 90000 joules. Do you wish to edit, or are we assuming magic craziness?))

seeing that all other combatants where busy Archimedes decided to simply do some practice. lining up four dummies designed as a pony, a diamond dog, a griffin and a dragon. when he was at a decent distance away he turned and readied storm herald. channeling energy to the halberd he could see that the tip became charged. when he was satisfied he cut the feed and shot at the pony target. the bale and sack dummy was immediately set on fire and now also looked rather ragged before it burnt to soot

551889((Eh, I'll retcon it, the math used was... shoddy at best, & seeing as I'm too lazy/busy to actually research, and you were kind enough to help, I see no reason not to fix it.))

changing his aim he quickly charged the halberd again. when it came to combat he new that he needed to be careful. if he ever ran out of energy it meant that he would only have the suits independent system. meaning no charged halberd and no storm cannon. he could do with out it but he would rather have all of his advantages. discharging again at the diamond dog dummy he gained the same result as last time. the dummy was on fire and ragged in general except for the arms. all diamond dogs had quite resistant arms and this was taken into account by the dummy through sandbags

551897
Storm Blitz raised an eyebrow, emerging from cover and trotting over. "That's a pretty significant hit," he said. "That's usually enough to, at the very least, send someone to the hospital with permanent nerve damage, you realize. You sure this is supposed to be non-lethal?"

551906 "Oh, I'm sure. It's designed to be shot at three or more targets, from a good distance. Then again, it was also meant as protection from slavers, so safety might not have been the number one concern..." Garret looks over at the Diamond Dog showing off his own lightning weaponry.
551900
"Uh, well, I'm guessing yours isn't supposed to be non-lethal."

551914
"Hmm.... slavers eh? I can't imagine that you'd care too much about how they felt afterwards."

"As for the halberd... yeah, that's a lethal weapon. Setting dummies on fire requires a sight more energy than 90,000 joules. Probably at least double that amount."

551914 contemplating what flickan said about reason to win. why did he actually want to win? honor? glory? fame? money? just because? Archimedes thought in silence as he walked to the griffon target, halberd charged and ready. Archimedes worked quickly, he used the length of the halberd to get a slash where the eyes should have been on the doll, he the proceeded to make a slice at the right wing followed by a thrust into the right side of the belly of the doll. as Archimedes noticed garret noting on the deadliness if his halberd's range strikes he decided to do a little overkill, discharging the storm herald while it was still in the griffon doll. the doll burst into a fireball, hay limbs spraying the vicinity

"sorry garret, did you day something?" Archie asked with a innocent smile

Crafter and Ditzy sat down on a bench near the edge of the arena and watched the others practice.
((lol sorry, distracted by Halo 4. all done now))

551921>>551938 Obviously shaken from the sandbag massacre he just witnessed, Garret decided to focus on something else, "You know Storm, you seem pretty smart. Ah well, time to show off a bit!" seeming to be without a care in the world and somehow managing to whistle ((How would you whistle with a beak? Magic!)), Garret collected three pony, gryphon, and diamond dog dummies, setting them up in lines. After adjusting them to his liking, he looks at the pack on his back, and with a sigh takes out two bladed, metal wing covers, each hollow and covered in silver, and begins stretching them out on the ground.

551947
As Liu eyed the few that were training, he smiled as he saw a familiar face. "Hey, Crafter, over here!"

551953
"Well, I had to learn a lot for my job back home. Killing monsters isn't just hack and slash, you know. But, if you don't mind, I think I'll sit over with 551947 to watch. Going by what I've seen, I'd rather not get caught in the blast radius of whatever is about to go down.

Turning, Blitz went and sat next to Crafter and Ditzy. "So, hello."

551967
Crafter looked over in the direction that his name was called. "Oh hey Liu, whats up?" ((he's still in his armor btw))

551969
Ditzy smiled, "Hello."

551975
As Liu walked up to his new-found friend, he eyed the metal suit, now having a proper chance to see it (unlike earlier at the tavern). "Now I don't know much about tech, but that looks impressive already. Did I miss anything?"

551982
"Nothing much, just did some stress testing on the defensive systems." Crafter said, still a bit tired from the magical exhaustion. "Namely shock resistance."

551975
"So, I never caught your name," said Storm, extending a hoofshake ((hoofbump?)). "I assume you're related to Crafter, however?"