Land Ahoy! [mireil+npcmod]

[tylomon]

The jet shark and the angel sword woman reached the end of the ocean waters before the day was out - the speedy water digimon held his word. It was about to become nightfall though, as the sun slowly disappeared beneath the line of the horizon. Tylo stuck his head out of the water, watching it - he was about to leave home waters, where he was so comfortable, in order to pursue a dream and complete a mission. So he took a few moments to say good bye to the Ocean, before swimming towards the sandy shoreline.

- Arright, we're at the place. Hnh, sure smells different... - the shark said as he made it to the shore, allowing the darcmon to climb off, but kept himself half-foot in the water, just starring at the ground right in front of him. It just looked so unfriendly, so solid ... so unlike waters? He scratched the head with the fin again in a moment of uncertainty. An impressive array of new smells hit his sensitive nose, this was ... strange.

- Err... this might get a little awkward... - the shark visibly blushed a bit at his own temporary helplessness as he did not know where to start, and still overcoming a fear of solid ground, never have been here before. He swam closer to the sandy shore to a point an inch closer would make him stuck like a washed out whale, and poked the ground with a fin, as if it were alive or something...

[Ciel]

Finally the mainlands. The time spent in the ocean felt almost like an eternity to the angel digimon and even if the ocean were quite peaceful and calmed the soul, hers wanted only battle and death.

"Don't be a coward, the first time always is the scariest, but later you can even start to enjoy it"

To be such a fearless digimon, he seemed to be quite nervous about the idea of leaving his aquatic home behind and that was proof of his lack of experience. If she were her former self, Ciel would've helped him to reach the shores without problems, but now she knew that the only way to overcome your fears was to face them by yourself.

"There's nothing to be afraid of here, becoming stronger is just a dream for you if you let this small obstacle defeat you."

[tylomon]

- Oh you DIDN'T just call me a coward?!! - one snide remark was enough to make the shark angry. This was an insult, even though she didn't really mean it, but he wouldn't know that would he? Nope, he wouldn't. And this was the way most of his peers were goading him into doing something - most times something stupid. So Ciel, whether knowingly or not, hit the berserk button. Taking a bit back, to have enough room for speed-up, the shark started off, course dead for the shore, and yelled:

- GERONIMO! - as the sudden lack of water made him fly out of the water, driven by sheer kinetic energy his body achieved, allowing for such a leap. Turned out to be not the smartest idea, since upon the impact his nose got dug a few inches deep into the ground. The shark rose his head, spitting out the dirt and cursing loudly: - ... that ****ing stupid ****ing soil! - but those stopped eventually.

He took a minute to lie on the ground, getting used to its dry touch. This was where he was supposed to spend most of his time during the mission, so might as well start familiarizing himself with the environment. His brain tried to remember what the textbooks said about gliding over the solid surface. He was called Jet of the deep sea not only because of speed, but also because of manner he got himself propelled through waters, which was similar. And if only he could direct some of those currents down, 90 degrees to the ground, then maybe...

- Ok... How to move across the land, Take 1. - he said to himself and sort of "activated the engines, but this time controlling the flux of air to go down, as if he were trying to swim upward. First try turns out to be a bust most of the time though. The gust of air was too strong, and poorly directed, it only got him jump into air again and fall on the back. - God I feel stupid... - he groaned, getting back on the belly again, and trying the same over and over again, till he would get the balance done...

... After killing at least half of an hour on figuring out the balance shticks, Tylo managed to hold himself in a relatively normal pose up in the air. It required lots of concentration at all times, so it was hard to think about anything else. Slowly, he hovered around a stone, as would a novice driver do around an obstacle, using fins and tail as sort of turning thingies on a plane.

- I think I'm getting used to ... whoa! - his happy exclamation was stopped as he barely didn't lose balance and fall again, distracted by talking. - ... well, maybe not...

[Ciel]

Seeing Tylo try again and again and again to control his ability to hover on the ground was rather amusing, it reminded Ciel of her days as a young and promising cadet being trained by the stern and powerful slash angemon.

Back in the old times, she had to do many harsh kind of training to become the badass she currently was, and when she was as green as only a recently initiated cadet can be, she couldn't even handle a wooden sword or fly through burning and collapsing ruined buildings holding a doll resembling a person that would explode as soon even a feather touched it, she was kinda lame actually.

"Stay calm and focus your energy into your goal. Impatience will only cause you to fail; that's what my mentor slash angemon used to say and I find his advice to be fitting here."

The old times ... back when things were simpler. Ciel used to do a training routine from hell along the rest of the cadets who wanted to become heavenly knights and protect Seraphimon and Ophanimon. Things like powertraining their wings by having the cadets fly after being chained to iron balls, increasing their pain tolerance by getting hit in a daily basis with a wooden sword, and the worst of all: having to study law and etiquette in a school >_<

"Just a little more and you can do it."

[tylomon]

- Err... I'm not very keen on patience... But I will try... - the shark sighed out before ... closing his eyes. This was gonna suck. Balls. Patience really wasn't his strong suit, he was used to getting results instantly, and if not, he would just smash his head against a brick wall till that wall was down rather than dismount the wall brick by brick. Tylomon really tried to muster some patience in the only way he knew how.

During long boring classes as a trainee it was insufferable to wait till the lesson was over, so ho, among other students, simply ... slept to pass the time, or half-slept. This may have proved to be the case. He hold perfectly still while hovering, his eyes still closed. Then, he would start more simple movements - going up and down, left and right, slowly, half-turns, full turns, circles, strafes and such. All very slowly, but giving ,ore speed to it as he got used. Then he would try to open eyes, but the images he saw filled the mind too soon, and he was inclining to sides a bit.

- I doubt we have time working on finesse. - he grunted, hovering around, still wavering left and right, but at a speed one could call rather considerable - at least faster than a running human, and it slowly kept growing. Tylo was bored by this snail-like speed, and wanted to go to the top of his potential as soon as possible. But he also remembered that he had to fight while hovering too. And possibly take damage. He couldn't afford to go down because of a simple distracting hit. With that in thought, he hovered over to the angel with a request:

- Distract me, tell a joke, an insult, hit me, whatever. And we'll see how I fare... - he implored...

[Ciel]

The tylomon really had quite a lot of energy ... maybe too much. He was enthusiastic, but enthusiasm and raw power alone weren't enough, and he seemed to have finally realized it as his hovering become more stable. What's more, he seemed to want to know if he could keep control on his hovering and stay calm even under bothersome situation, so Ciel decided to help him a little.

"Cowards like you will never become royal guards, even a numemon has more talent than you!"

She wondered if her insult was enough to achieve the desired results, she was no good insulting and trying to pull one-liners would make her look like a corny character, but maybe trying a cheesy one liner would work well in combination with what she said before

"That's all you can do? You can't handle the heat!"

Well ... that was an horrible line, but whatever, this was for training and she didn't have to be a master of intimidation nor be well versed with the fine arts of manipulating through the words to help him in his training.

[tylomon]

Tylomon only shook his head. Well that didn't work as planned - the darcmon was worthless when it came to insults. The first rule of any insult was not the combination of words that was used, although that gave bonus points, but the important part was that you were supposed to mean those words. This was why he reacted aggressively when she goaded him out of the water - there was more meaning to her words, but now - no, not really. Those words were empty, even such a thick skull as Tylomon understood that.

- Guess insults isn't your strong suit, huh? Well that plan didn't work... - he sounded a bit disappointed, turning around a bit, as if he was wishing to "swim" away somewhere, to continue his hovering training runs. However, there was more to it. A way to test control under stressful situations unlike any other. Hovering alongside her, he waited till the whip end of his tail was somewhere in the same arch as her face, and then suddenly, made a tail-whip attack, so that the said end would whack the angel on the face. He'd make distance quickly, and turn around, a bit off by abrupt 180 degree turn.

- Then maybe you'd show me what they taught you in guard school. C'mon! - he sounded eagerly, whether or not his little mischief worked out or no...

[Ciel]

Whack! Suddenly, out of nowhere, the tyolomon decided to surprise slap the darcmon in the face with his tail. It might've hurt if the hovering shark actually wanted to attack seriously, but it was just a minor nuisance, one that accidentally caused the mask that covered the upper part of her face to fall and reveal Ciel's face, she actually looked a lot better without that mask but all angel digimon were ordered to always cover their faces with their masks. The darcmon defied enough the law by using a mask that showed her eyes, but to show her complete face? That was one of the greatest sins an angel digimon could commit, ranking only a little below outright becoming cruel digimon.

"I don't really care about wearing a mask anymore, but out of respect for my clan I shall still wear it. You better never try to pull this stunt with other angel digimon for it is a sin punishable with death to strip an angel digimon of his/her mask"

Her old self would've punished tylomon for his stunt, but now she didn't really care about it. She picked and wore again her mask and noticing what the tylomon's intention were, she tossed her sword at an above-average speed, aiming directly at the tylomon's forehead. Thanks to his armor it would only hurt a little even if he failed to dodge and his tough skin would make sure that even in the worst case, the sword wouldn't hurt very much ... although for the purposes of the training, he had to dodge it using his control of his hovering abilities, stopping the attack would be the same as accepting he was slow enough to fail avoiding that attack he should easily be able to dodge if he tried harder to control his power.

"Dodge it or accept you're too slow outside the ocean"

[tylomon]

Tylo stared at the face for a few moments, jaw touching the ground. Damn, she was pretty, and she looked very much ... human without that mask. Only take away the wings. It certainly was an appreciable contrast compared to the fishfolk back home. Change was good, most of the time, although Ciel didn't share such a view probably. - No way, what, really? So much fuss over a stu... over a mask? - Tylo exclaimed in disbelief as he heard the explanation about the weird and useless piece of metal all angel-types starting from champion level used to wear. The concept was foreign to the shark - the dam thing did nothing besides obscuring vision, so why they were so attached to it? - Who's the one who came with the bright idea in the first place? - he felt ridiculed. That piece of headwear was nothing but useless.

But he didn't manage to wait for a reply since a flying sword attack came at him the next moment, with a few words following to piss him off. And this time, they actually done it - they were more appropriate under these circumstances, and would have left a bad taste if he failed to comply and prove them wrong. - I ain't too slow for nothing! he exclaimed, strafing to the left at instant speed, making the effort not as smooth - looking as it would have looked in the sea, but it was enough - the sword missed by wide. The shark figured it would be easier if he wouldn't stand hovering in one place and moved instead, so he kept strafing at a decent speed, eyes focusing on the angel again.

- My turn. Dodge these... - the shark opened his mouth then, only to show various types of shark-like missiles filling it - of all shapes and sizes. The three he launched were small, and packed little fire-power - counter-missiles. But they were the hardest to dodge, being the fastest, and, what was worse, HOMING.

[Ciel]

"Well done, now you are progressing. As for the mask, we angels were made beautiful, and as obsession for external beauty can cause corruption and troubles for both angels and non angels alike, we wear masks and helmets to prevent us from falling from grace and tempting the hearts of other digimon, call it a system to keep our purity intact if you want. Also, it is said that we were made in the image of our creator, and it is forbidden for us servants to try to be greater than the creator. Besides, they help us to awaken their "mind's eye", which more than compensate for the lack of ocular vision by giving us the ability to see beyond what eyes can see. I personally prefer to see my enemies, hence why my mask have holes that let me see with my own eyes."

She knew the tylomon could do it, he only needed some "incentive" to learn how to move in the sky as well as he did underwater, so as reward for his well done job she told him more about why angel digimon wore masks. Even angels could fall prey to vanity and other digimon might felt compelled to do "dirty things" to those beings of beauty only matched by very few digimon, so they always had to conceal their faces to avoid tempting other digimon awakening their most primal instincts. Also, whoever created the angel types clearly wanted them to be as closer to what humans considered "perfect and pure" as possible, yet still forced them to conceal their faces to make them less "human"

Leaving aside her explanation, she continued watching the tylomon's movements and she wasn't really that surprised that this time he was the one wanting to see what the darcmon was capable of, testing her skills via the use of homing missiles. The beautiful angel digimon nimbly dodged those missiles as if she were dancing around them the moment they were too close to turn around and let them explode after crashing with a rocky formation behind her. She could've easily slice them in half with her swordsmanship, but her hands still lacked the precision and firm grip needed to use at its fullest her style and also she was unaware of the explosive power of those missiles. One thing would be to slice in half a colossal rock or a cannonball, another thing was to slice something that could potentially explode into a sea of flames and cause slash damage. Fortunately those missiles had little power in them, but once one hit, the others would follow and the damage would accumulate and the slash damage would hurt in the case of destroying them at close range.

"I know that was just a test, but always have in mind that even your weakest weapon can be very useful against the proper enemy. Everything has its uses, but its up to you to decide which one is more suitable for each situation"

In her case she was pretty much limited to her swords and her own body, but what not many digimon would expect is that she was also able to recall her swords. Once she stopped speaking, she recalled the sword she tossed previously and it safely returned at her hand. She didn't show it at that time, but it was a basic strategy of hers to toss her swords at the enemy, and if the enemy was naive enough to think she had no more weapons and charged against her, summon back the swords and let them stab the enemy from behind.