Mogan found himself quite surprised by Talia's insight, as he was usually quite good at masking his emotions. Then again she could have tried to guess, and surely excitement before a mission wasn't an uncommon feeling to have, even for more experienced students.
"I'm surprised you could tell. It's just that it's been a while since I last went on a mission or fought Grimm, and I guess the most apprehensive part of me wonders how well I'm going to manage both those factors and the responsibility of looking after our younger comrades. But there is no reason to worry! I'm sure that between us and the professor we can handle this. And besides, it's not like we have to protect untrained civilians... Even a first-year student should be more than a match for a group of ordinary Grimm or at least be able to stall for time."Mogan said with a serious expression and a shrug.
Probably their biggest contribution in aiding the younger students would manifest itself in terms of shot calling and capability to adapt to an unknown situation, in order not to put others in an unmanageable dangerous situation. At the end of the day fighting prowess and combat experience was nothing but corollaries for what's truly important when fighting for one's own life: a clear mind and a good plan of action. History was full of overconfident, albeit very strong, hunters that had died on missions that should have been easy for them, all because they had rushed into danger or had approached the enemy without a too much thought.
As for the strange kinds of Grimm they could encounter on this mission, Gwilan apparently wanted a three-headed Grimm with no arms. Which would no doubt be a pain to bring down, given that such a Grimm probably would have had a lot of armored bone plates, and would have been both big enough to resist ordinary blows and with long heads fast and strong enough to attack from mid-range. Throw in something like poisoned fangs, or just a simple charge attack that could trample an ordinary human and you had the perfect recipe for a very annoying Grimm. Sure five hunters could have killed such a beast, but a single one would have surely found himself in trouble.
In the meantime, the professor's rocket locker had arrived but it was too early to say what kind of weapon it was. Judging from the armor that accompanied the weapon, the prof was a "power-fighter", who sacrificed mobility to the benefit of a good defense and the chance to trade hits. So he most likely had some kind of heavy weapon and would act as the tank of the group in case of hard battles.
Mogan was about to give his own opinion on the matter of the grimm types when something about what professor Talandar said caught his attention.
"Professor, what do you mean when you said "human interference"? How would humans be able to..."Mogan stopped his question short, his ears picking up a strange noise that, judging by his expression, the professor had already heard. Mogan turned to face the direction from which the buzzing sound was coming and at the same time the professor shouted and four lancers emerged from the trees, aiming at Gwilan.
Gwilan, who had jogged a few more steps from the landing point than the others, was the closest to the Grimm, which were, in fact, going straight for him. Add to this that the first year student had thought well to stick his trident in the ground.
As my grandpa always said: "There is never a moment of peace under the moon". Mogan thought while he kicked the ground to propel himself forward and uncoiled the whip wrapped around his left arm. He could probably have made it to Gwilan before the lancers, but there was no guarantee that the wasp-like Grimms would not shoot their stingers before. So instead of going directly in the direction of the lancers, Mogan moved diagonally to them in a way that would allow him to circle around them while giving them his left flank. Lancers were among the variants of Grimm that Mogan most hated to face. Beyond the unpleasant aspects, the important factors were that lancers moved in swarms, had high mobility, had means to attack from a safe distance while in flight and even up close they could rely on as many as six sharp and jagged appendages and a pair of powerful mandibles. So they were a nightmare for a close quarters fighter like him, especially if he didn't want to take hits. But it was exactly because they were such a bad matchup for Mogan that he knew exactly how to best deal with them. As the saying goes: "You can never defeat another if you know not how to defeat yourself" because once you know what your weaknesses are you can work around them and research your nemesis weaknesses. In the case of lancers, their biggest advantage was the ability to fly. If you managed to force them to the ground, that meant that they would lose their mobility and speed and would be forced to use some of their appendages to walk, and it would then be sufficient to approach them from the sides or the back to nullify the threat of all the lancer's weapons.
And so Mogan deployed his spiked whip, crackling with lightning dust, and while he circled around his targets he lashed it towards the wings of the closest lancer. His intention was to hit one Grimm after the other, in order to damage the wings of all of them and leave the rest of the group to aid Gwylan.
"Watch out for the stingers! They can shoot them. I'll try to incapacitate their wings and force them to the ground."Mogan shouted while using his whip. A drop of sweat trickled down his neck. He had put himself in a dangerous position, he was aware of that. On his left the lancers and on his right the treeline, with his allies on the other side of the Grimms, which meant that if any more creatures emerged from the forest he would potentially have to deal with them alone for a while, especially if he wasn't able to hit the wings of the flying monstrosities and the fight dragged along for some time. So part of his attention and his left arm, the one with the claws and the cannon, were already aimed at the treeline and ready to react to the arrival of new threats.
Oh! How he had missed this! This sense of clarity, the drumming of his heartbeat... too bad that lancers made his skin crawl with disgust, so the experience resulted somewhat ruined in his opinion.
OOC
Since this is my first fight in this rpg, please let me know if I make some mistakes, do too much or too less.
I also have a couple of questions:
1) In the Battle data what does that "4 x 4% from stingers" means? The first 4 is the number of attacks, but is that 4% the damage to his aura that Gwilan has already suffered or is it the damage that he will suffer if a stinger hits him?
2) If all four stingers hit him, will he suffer a 16% aura loss? It that's the case doesn't it seem a bit low to you? In the show, those things pierce the metal hull of flying ships like paper, so I imagine that taking four of those should do quite a bit of damage, no?