The Terrifying World of Chilly Beads (Solo/Shadow)

Richard had been laying in the treetops, watching him for a while now. Eyes now closing and letting out a yawn, this was going better than planned. The white haired man bellow them seemed to think he was doing much more than he actually was... Chilly had been pacing back and fort between two trees for a good fifty minutes now, revolver in hand and eyes glazed over, not that Richard was complaining. If this shadow would exclusively consist of the huntsman reflecting to himself and ignoring Richard then that would be fine. Better than fine actually, it would be the ideal. Sure, upon taking the mission Richard had perhaps, somewhere deep down, hoped for some kind of training... it had been months since he'd seen his prior mentor so meeting another experienced hunter might have done some good, but that had been but the smallest of thoughts in his head. Totally insignificant part of his mind. And so when-

Finally a shot rang out, Richard's hear skipping a beat. He had been so close to drifting asleep. He looked to the man, his barrel was smoking; the gun was pointed almost directly at Richard. He didn't feel like he had been shot... His eyes widened, he scanned around himself in panic, when he heard the cracking of the branch bellow him. He met the ground with a thud, branches breaking his fall but scratching his back. But he knew the branch he had been laying on was thick, he'd picked it for that specific reason... then how...

Removing the piece from beneath him he found a massive hole, far bigger than any bullet Chilly's gun could shoot, torn through the branch. Suffice to say the gun was strong, it must have used some kind of dust to-

Out of the corner of his vision Richard saw Chilly lower his gun, barrel trained on his head... perhaps he was going to make more of an effort than he thought.

Without so much as a moment of hesitation Richard had switched position with the grass in front of Chilly, his claws drawn he lunged directly for the hand holding the revolver... however he found that it came to him. The metal grazed all the way down his arm before meeting with his face, surprisingly heavy and surprisingly sharply. His combat experience clearly didn't exclusively apply to ranged combat with his pistols. Before he could feel his face swelling the man's boot met with Richard's chest, pushing him back to the tree which he had fallen from.

Snarling slightly, Chilly being totally unfazed by his assault. Richard quickly rose to a low crouching position, this time drawing both sets of claws. The gun was once more trained upon him, once more he switched places with the grass at Chilly's feet, however he did so after he had pushed off of the ground and begun a slashing motion with his arms. His momentum was conserved, slashing down his chest and knocking away the armed hand.

Chilly however countered this expertly, as the right side of his body was pushed away he grasped the back of Richard's head with his left and pushed him to the ground. Almost immediately the gun was to his back, pressed down at point blank range. He could only see the ground in front of him, so he couldn't move, he couldn't switch places to get away!

"That's three times, I could have shot you three times in the last minute. Nothing but my good graces and the want to sleep in Belmuse kept me from doing it. You are flawed as a Hunter." He released his grip on the boy, rising.

Richard growled slightly under his breath, "What's to say I couldn't do the same to you?"

The shot blasting into the dirt an inch above his head did.

Now righted and standing face to face Richard's brow was furrowed, staring up at the man as he looked out straight over his head. Paying no attention to him whatsoever. There was some blood on the man, Richard's claw strikes had left their mark, but it was clear who was the boss in this situation. He sighed, finally breaking and deciding to talk to the man with the stupid goatee; "What is it that makes me flawed then? The gap in our experience and skill could simply be our age difference."

He stayed quiet for a moment longer, much to Richard's annoyance, before finally deciding to speak again, "To begin with, you are much too predictable. Not once but twice you used what was basically the same tactic. The latter version was superior, but that simply means you should not have used the former one."

"...What else?" The man had stated that and then once more went back to silence for a further minute.

"Well. You are incredibly lazy. Semblances are a manifestation of the soul, yours manifested as a method of movement for which you did not have to move. That and your general demeanor, a well as your accuracy, gives off quite a half willing vibe." He responded, still refusing to look Richard in the eye, "You didn't even draw your weapon or use dust, you were surprised and let the surprise take you. You should never fight bare handed unless you're well practiced in it."

Richard reached up to scratched his chin, "I guess I can see what you mean. I usually do like to plan before engagement-

"You won't always be able to. You need to be prepared for surprise engagement, if you truly are this lazy."

Richard's hand lowered from his chin, but rather than going to his side it reached directly under his scarf and grasped Keyll. Tossing one blade at him only for it to be deflected against the shiny silver revolver Richard prepared to toss the other.

The following battle was brief. Richard's second blade did reach it's target, slicing against the side of Chilly's neck much to his aura's dismay. The experienced hunter was not taken aback by this however, rather he lowered his pistol and fired a shot off. The blast met with his shoulder, knocking him backward and embedding in his shoulder. It was explosive dust, and while his resilience against dust was indeed good this was of a rather high grade. The resulting fire however brought anger and fear into Richard's eyes. Something the older huntsman seemed to note.

Fighting the pain he whipped and lashed manically with his two blades, slicing the man several times as he unleashed more chain to prevent him from back-stepping the blows. Chilly's shirt was soon in tatters, his tanned body revealed and aura fending off a majority of the blows. Then, without hesitation, the man charged forward. Richard had let loose too much chain, he couldn't recall it all in time to strike. He switched places with the grass behind Chilly, however this left him facing away from the man. A powerful elbow met with the side of Richard's head and with that he was on the ground again.

"Perhaps I underestimated you by a stage, but regardless. You're still a good while out from facing me in single combat. Let's get you back."

Richard growled, the fire had finally outed at his shoulder. He wasn't happy to be beaten, of course he wasn't, but he now knew some more of his weaknesses as a hunter. And had a plan for just how to improve on them.

-Exit/Done-