After they finished with their formation. Both teams have the same strategies, letting the leaders go in first while the other three support him. The leaders in this case are Marc and Barack.
Pearl frowned a bit, he's looking at Don on the other side, a pretty tall buff guy with spiky hair, perfectly built to be a warrior or some sort, but he's on the backline — casually crossing his arms and waiting.
"Rina, can you take the big responsibility?" Marc asked as he looked at the basement trapdoor, still intact after the explosion.
Rina understood and nodded, even when Marc wasn't looking at her.
"Before we have to beat you guys up, mind introducing?" Alize, the archer from the other side yelled out.
"We're here to pick up our daughter, not to fight! Can we talk this out?" Mei yelled back.
"Our?" Pearl tapped his staff on Mei's shoulder.
"Yeah, Rina told me we should be a good family figure for Es, so might as well be moms and dads." She answered
Pearl glared at Rina, who was whistling it off.
…
On the other side, they took the pride of starting the fight.
"Allow me to start it off." Alize said, charging her bow up and ready to shoot, yet no arrow to be seen on it.
"Elemental Spell: Water Shaping." She quietly mumbles, as water around her gathered on her bow, forming into an arrow.
Water Shaping: Allows the user to shape water at their own will while still keeping the nature of water.
Alize's mana began circling around her, covering the air like an aura. She began casting another spell on top of that.
"Archery Spell: Bird's Eyes."
Bird's Eyes: Allows the user to control the trajectory of the arrow at will. But the damage of the arrow will still drop as travel distances go.
With those two spells combined, Alize pulled the bowstring back for a split second, then sent the water-made arrow flying towards.
voot
In response, Rina also quickly sent an arrow towards Alize's arrow, with the intention of colliding the two. Rina's arrow did not have any spell casted on it, but she aimed it pitch perfect to hit the water arrow.
splash
The two arrows collided — Rina's arrow slowed down a bit going through literal water, while Alize's arrow got deformed and scattered around the air. Only for it to form back again into an arrow, still charging towards the group.
Rina's arrow can't quite reach Barack's group, but Alize's arrow sure did thanks to the head start. With the power of Bird's Eyes; Alize controls the arrow to aim at the seemingly youngest member of the group, Mei Magmal. When the arrow passed through Marc who was standing in front, he tried slicing it with his sword, but the sword went straight through the arrow.
"Elemental Spell: Icycle Shot."
When the arrow almost reached Mei's forehead; she spitted out a freezing ice ball directly at the arrow. Which makes the thing freezed up. She then used her staff to break it into pieces.
"Fancy opening they had." Rina said as she armed another arrow. "We can't afford a long-term fight. On your mark, Marc."
Marc nodded. With only an arrow, the other team caused trouble, surpassing both Rina and Marc. They never thought someone would use water combined with Bird's Eyes, a high-ranking archery skill.
Of course Rina could use Bird's Eyes too, but the risk is higher than the reward; she'd have to dodge the possible enemy attacks both on herself and the arrow, but if she focused too much on dodging, the arrow would drop it damage for flying too long. Alize's plan was near perfect, when she used water, the arrow could've flown straight ahead with no worries of Rina's arrows or Marc's blade stopping it — and she doesn't have to aim it correctly, she could just switch targets at the last second.
"Are you all ready?" Marc asked the team, holding his sword Migi Gedan like stance.
No answer given, everyone stays completely silent and gets in pose, as well as the other team.
Red carpet has been rolled out, now it's the matter of how the walk. The rubbles underneath caused by the explosion will make it hard to walk without looking down.
"Now Rina!"
Rina folded her bow; hiding the strings to turn it into a wooden stick of sorts — held it like a staff and started running towards the enemy team. Marc, Pearl and Mei followed along her sides.
"Spearhead?" Don raised his eyebrows in a bit of a surprise.
The spearhead is a well-known formation for calvaries. Sending a valiant knight up front and charging in, two people will go behind the first knight, then three and so on.
This formation works well when you're on a high speed horse, ramming through and penetrating the enemy line of defense, but never recorded in practice if it works on foot against mages and warriors.
"We're still doing the Separated and Gathering formation, split out." Barack commanded everyone.
Marc's team almost reached where Barack's team was standing; their team now splitted up with four members around 10 steps from each other. If one member gets caught in the spearhead's path, the other three would have an easy time flanking the formation from its sides, which means hitting Pearl and Mei first while Rina and Marc are stuck in the front.
But, that is in theory, if they decided on a traditional spearhead formation foot.
"Left, two steps North West!" Rina called out while still running.
They don't have time measurement to use o'clock, and it is a situation that you can't just think of a degree. So they use steps instead, two steps is like a 10 o'clock angle. And that, by the way, was Don's direction.
Don — well-prepared, stood still and braced himself, not moving an inch. If Rina were to run into him now, chances are the formation's going to break and their team will be surrounded in no time, of course, if Rina's the one to let that happen.
"Elves' Vision: Wind Dance."