Dust combat was something of a difficult subject. Most people didn’t understand not only the possible weaknesses and difficulties using dust gave, particularly if one was dependent on it and didn’t think to restock regularly. There was also the other obvious difficulty, in that it was just generally difficult to actually learn how to use with any degree of effectiveness. Not only the base elements, but then learning to properly utilize higher levels of dust as one advanced was almost as much of an art, as it was dependent on the science involved. Often people used weapons and items to make it easier, something that similarly solved another of the major difficulties.
The Issue with dust was that one couldn’t immediately call on it all the time. While many weapons had some type of storage even these were usually limited and didn’t account for switching dust types on the fly as well as some other types of fighting styles might be able to. Then there was using dust without a weapon incorporating into it. Even still many utilized bandoliers or the like in order to make this easier, but it still required actually taking out the crystal in order to utilize it. An action that could still take precious seconds, seconds that in a fight could be costly.
While this was one of Rika Titania’s main concerns, most of the logistics were lost on her, there was one thing she knew for certain however was that constantly trying to scramble for crystals was annoying. This was also a problem for the cat faunus for another issue, namely that she wasn’t just some fighter at the end of the day. Rika was in fact a martial artist and having to constantly stop fighting to pull out crystals wasn’t particularly what she would describe as art, nor was it particularly helpful for her method of fighting. While she had compensated for this somewhat with her bracers there were a few problems still, namely she had limited her own combat versatility somewhat by doing so. Not being able to use kicks or the like severely limited her abilities already, and it hadn’t been helping the pigtailed girl much that she had to prepare the stuff before leaving her dorm. There was also the issue that she just had a limited amount of space in the bracers to actually utilize the dust, and as such couldn’t fit dust of every type.
The pigtailed martial artist had only recently heard about something that could very easily solve her problems involving this, something she didn’t know about before due to her own lack of knowledge largely, as it wasn’t an unheard-of practice for Huntsmen and huntresses to imbue or fuse dust into their clothing, as it allowed for easy access to the volatile substance without having to struggle with crystals or rely on what was preloaded into her own weapon to access it. A good thing since she often used dust alone rather than simply her weapon. She’d considered trying to imbue dust into herself, only to learn the hard way that it was surprisingly painful, and probably wouldn’t be a good method for fighting, channeling the dust through her clothing instead was undoubtedly the better option, as it would allow her to use dust on the fly, even if she needed to without having any time to prepare for a fight beforehand. Then there was the fact it could allow her to utilize things like kicks rather than just manipulating dust with her hands and arms. Being able to manipulate dust on the fly for both attack and defense was too good an idea to ignore however, and Rika had been eager to look into the idea in order to better be able to utilize her art.
Looking into already made dust fused clothes proved less than helpful, not because she couldn’t find any but rather due to a different issue. Namely this issue had been that she didn’t have the money to do so. It turned out that dust fused clothing was a rather specialized item, and while the economics of it were lost on the pigtailed cat faunus, the fact that she couldn’t find any of them that she could afford was. As such the pigtailed girl had to rely on an alternative method.
It was lucky that she’d managed to make friends with the old guy Hog, who had agreed to teach her how to fuse dust into objects such as clothing. Of course, she only was told HOW to do it, and there was still some skill involved in imbuing dust into clothes, but Rika was determined enough to make something that could help her with that. The Cat faunus had to try three or four times and had caused a few small explosions before she finally succeeded in what she was trying to make. Two cloth anklets, just bands of cloth more than anything that had earth dust fused into them.
They weren’t exactly top quality, but Rika wasn’t exactly the type to care about things like fashion, and they would likely be hidden by her martial arts slacks anyway thus making the criticism a mote point. Rika didn’t really care how they looked so much as if they worked. It had taken most of the evening for her to make the anklets, but the pigtailed girl was not one known for her patience, and as such she found herself in the training area seemingly in the middle of the night.
It was a bit weird to see the usually somewhat lively area completely abandoned, as even in the early mornings there had been a few people more dedicated to their honing their own fighting skills. Now though it was completely empty, and it took a minute for Rika to adjust to the oddity, before she lost herself in training. The pigtailed girl ran a few basic kata before getting down to what she was here for, an activity which served dual purposes as she could ensure that the new accessory would not hinder her movements or the like. It also was a simple way to warm up, as Rika wanted to be able to get some practice in before properly trying the new accessory. After perhaps 15-20 minutes, Rika nodded to herself, satisfied that her movements weren’t being hindered in any way by the accessories, as well as the fact that the anklets weren’t going to just slip off in the middle of a fight.
The pigtailed girl shifted into a fighting stance, focusing her aura to activate the dust fused into the clothing before shifting her stance slightly, changing from her normal stance to one with a more solid base and stomping, causing a wall of earth and rock to shoot up from the ground, as if to block an attack before. Rika took another stomp forward, still in her fighting stance but this time also slamming her fist against the wall as she focused on activating the earth dust once again. This time the wall seemingly collapsed, changing from a solid wall of earth into what could be called a rockslide that went for several meters before stopping.
Rika shifted her stance slightly, pivoting one of her feet and causing the ground to shift slightly under her before releasing a powerful roundhouse kick, spikes of earth following right behind her foot and skewering her invisible target before she stopped mid-kick, her movement changing to slam her foot down and making a pillar of rock shoot out in front of her, likely slamming into the fictious opponent and launching the backwards like a jack hammer.
The redheaded martial artist grinned seeing her new trick working even better than expected, she could probably make a style purely based on the earth dust anklets themselves if she wanted, let alone anything she might incorporate other dust-fused accessories into. This was going to be great, Rika thought excitedly as she thought on the implications of being able to channel dust through different areas of her body without actually trying to infuse her body itself with dust. It’d certainly make it a lot easier to fight the way she preferred too. Rika suddenly yawned, realizing that she was much more exhausted than she’d thought, it was rather late, and looking at the clock revealed she’d already spent a good amount of time in the training area, and the already late hour had already meant she’d been up later than normal. The clock revealed it to already be past midnight and Rika decided reluctantly to leave her training for the morning, but first she’d try to pick up a snack.
She couldn’t wait to show Sakura all the stuff she’d learned!
The Issue with dust was that one couldn’t immediately call on it all the time. While many weapons had some type of storage even these were usually limited and didn’t account for switching dust types on the fly as well as some other types of fighting styles might be able to. Then there was using dust without a weapon incorporating into it. Even still many utilized bandoliers or the like in order to make this easier, but it still required actually taking out the crystal in order to utilize it. An action that could still take precious seconds, seconds that in a fight could be costly.
While this was one of Rika Titania’s main concerns, most of the logistics were lost on her, there was one thing she knew for certain however was that constantly trying to scramble for crystals was annoying. This was also a problem for the cat faunus for another issue, namely that she wasn’t just some fighter at the end of the day. Rika was in fact a martial artist and having to constantly stop fighting to pull out crystals wasn’t particularly what she would describe as art, nor was it particularly helpful for her method of fighting. While she had compensated for this somewhat with her bracers there were a few problems still, namely she had limited her own combat versatility somewhat by doing so. Not being able to use kicks or the like severely limited her abilities already, and it hadn’t been helping the pigtailed girl much that she had to prepare the stuff before leaving her dorm. There was also the issue that she just had a limited amount of space in the bracers to actually utilize the dust, and as such couldn’t fit dust of every type.
The pigtailed martial artist had only recently heard about something that could very easily solve her problems involving this, something she didn’t know about before due to her own lack of knowledge largely, as it wasn’t an unheard-of practice for Huntsmen and huntresses to imbue or fuse dust into their clothing, as it allowed for easy access to the volatile substance without having to struggle with crystals or rely on what was preloaded into her own weapon to access it. A good thing since she often used dust alone rather than simply her weapon. She’d considered trying to imbue dust into herself, only to learn the hard way that it was surprisingly painful, and probably wouldn’t be a good method for fighting, channeling the dust through her clothing instead was undoubtedly the better option, as it would allow her to use dust on the fly, even if she needed to without having any time to prepare for a fight beforehand. Then there was the fact it could allow her to utilize things like kicks rather than just manipulating dust with her hands and arms. Being able to manipulate dust on the fly for both attack and defense was too good an idea to ignore however, and Rika had been eager to look into the idea in order to better be able to utilize her art.
Looking into already made dust fused clothes proved less than helpful, not because she couldn’t find any but rather due to a different issue. Namely this issue had been that she didn’t have the money to do so. It turned out that dust fused clothing was a rather specialized item, and while the economics of it were lost on the pigtailed cat faunus, the fact that she couldn’t find any of them that she could afford was. As such the pigtailed girl had to rely on an alternative method.
It was lucky that she’d managed to make friends with the old guy Hog, who had agreed to teach her how to fuse dust into objects such as clothing. Of course, she only was told HOW to do it, and there was still some skill involved in imbuing dust into clothes, but Rika was determined enough to make something that could help her with that. The Cat faunus had to try three or four times and had caused a few small explosions before she finally succeeded in what she was trying to make. Two cloth anklets, just bands of cloth more than anything that had earth dust fused into them.
They weren’t exactly top quality, but Rika wasn’t exactly the type to care about things like fashion, and they would likely be hidden by her martial arts slacks anyway thus making the criticism a mote point. Rika didn’t really care how they looked so much as if they worked. It had taken most of the evening for her to make the anklets, but the pigtailed girl was not one known for her patience, and as such she found herself in the training area seemingly in the middle of the night.
It was a bit weird to see the usually somewhat lively area completely abandoned, as even in the early mornings there had been a few people more dedicated to their honing their own fighting skills. Now though it was completely empty, and it took a minute for Rika to adjust to the oddity, before she lost herself in training. The pigtailed girl ran a few basic kata before getting down to what she was here for, an activity which served dual purposes as she could ensure that the new accessory would not hinder her movements or the like. It also was a simple way to warm up, as Rika wanted to be able to get some practice in before properly trying the new accessory. After perhaps 15-20 minutes, Rika nodded to herself, satisfied that her movements weren’t being hindered in any way by the accessories, as well as the fact that the anklets weren’t going to just slip off in the middle of a fight.
The pigtailed girl shifted into a fighting stance, focusing her aura to activate the dust fused into the clothing before shifting her stance slightly, changing from her normal stance to one with a more solid base and stomping, causing a wall of earth and rock to shoot up from the ground, as if to block an attack before. Rika took another stomp forward, still in her fighting stance but this time also slamming her fist against the wall as she focused on activating the earth dust once again. This time the wall seemingly collapsed, changing from a solid wall of earth into what could be called a rockslide that went for several meters before stopping.
Rika shifted her stance slightly, pivoting one of her feet and causing the ground to shift slightly under her before releasing a powerful roundhouse kick, spikes of earth following right behind her foot and skewering her invisible target before she stopped mid-kick, her movement changing to slam her foot down and making a pillar of rock shoot out in front of her, likely slamming into the fictious opponent and launching the backwards like a jack hammer.
The redheaded martial artist grinned seeing her new trick working even better than expected, she could probably make a style purely based on the earth dust anklets themselves if she wanted, let alone anything she might incorporate other dust-fused accessories into. This was going to be great, Rika thought excitedly as she thought on the implications of being able to channel dust through different areas of her body without actually trying to infuse her body itself with dust. It’d certainly make it a lot easier to fight the way she preferred too. Rika suddenly yawned, realizing that she was much more exhausted than she’d thought, it was rather late, and looking at the clock revealed she’d already spent a good amount of time in the training area, and the already late hour had already meant she’d been up later than normal. The clock revealed it to already be past midnight and Rika decided reluctantly to leave her training for the morning, but first she’d try to pick up a snack.
She couldn’t wait to show Sakura all the stuff she’d learned!
