Team JASZ combat practice

Jet finished setting up the dummies and targets, hefting a large Ursa dummy into place. "Whew... Those are heavier than they look..." He stood in the arena, waiting for his team to arrive.

Zack strolled over to Jet's chosen area, Geoff poking out of the top of his shirt. "Hey, Jet! I got your note about practice!" Zack walks up holding the back of his head with both hands. "So what's our routine gonna be?"

"You see those three dummies?" He points to three spread out dummies. "Take them out in one single attack."

Zack thinks for a minute, pulling Geoff out of his shirt and laying him on a nearby bench. He brings out Volc-Cannus before spinning into the air to start up his Huo Pao. He points towards the area between the dummies before loosing a fire shot and propelling himself towards the dummies. As he closes in on his target, he twists the handles of Volc-Cannus, covering himself in a wave of flames before crashing into the ground. As he slams into the ground, the flames around him blast outwards, engulfing the dummies completely. As the fire fades Zack stands and looks over to Jet. "How was that!?"

"That was good. Now do it again differently. Without going in the air." Jet says, arms crossed.

"Uh... o-okay..." Zack thinks for another few minutes before he continues. He stands in the middle of the three dummies, Volc-Cannus extended outward, and begins to spin. He continues spinning like a fan as he again turns the handles on his hammer. Fire streams out from the head, pulsing outwards before hitting the dummies and covering them with a wave of fire. Once a few waves of the fire had hit, Zack stopped himself and turned back to Jet. "There! I figured it out! That worked better than I thought it would!"

"Yeah, but it took you a few minutes to figure it out. An Ursa or Beowolf won't give you time to think about that. You need to think quicker, or you're dead."

"Hrmmm... I would've gotten it a lot quicker if my life really depended on it. Besides, the whole idea of this training is that there'll be teammates there to help me out, right? It would be easy if everyone coordinated!" Zack reassures himself, smiling.

"But what if we aren't there?" Jet asks, walking over to Zack. "What if we get seperated for some reason? And even if our team is together, we can't babysit you while you think of how to take out some Grimm."

Zack winces back after hearing Jet's words. "Well, then I'd just take them out one by one. That's a lot easier to do. Beowolves go down quickly and Ursa wouldn't be able to maneuver around each other since they're so big! I could do it, maybe just not in the same way you wanted me to hit the dummies." Zack stands back upright, crossing his arms as he looks towards Jet.

"Ursa... They're much more maneuverable than people give them credit for... Trust me on that. Now what if you were faced by a King Taijitu? They're very fast, very strong. Give me a rundown on how you'd take one out by yourself, and then how you'd take one out with the whole team."

Surprised about being put on the spot, Zack frantically starts speaking. "Well, uh- I'm pretty sure they're cold blooded. So in that case, I'd cover it in ice from Volc-Cannus so that it's heart rate would slow down and it wouldn't be as active. Then, I'd uh... I guess I'd try to smash its teeth to stop it from biting and poisoning me. After that, I'd just start smashing into its head until it was dead. Something like that anyways." Zack looks down, thinking hard before continuing. "If we were all fighting it together, then..." Zack pauses for a moment. "Ah, I know! Alton's pretty fast, right? He could swing around above and distract it. While it was distracted, I could jump up and smash its head into the ground. From there, Stahl could use his sword to cut off some of the scales on its neck, and then you could decapitate it with Paladin in the place without scales!" Zack perks back up, believing he had found a good solution to Jet's question.

Jet smiles at Zack's answer. "Very good. But what about a Nevermore? They're tough, and they can fly. What would be the best solution to taking them out? Alone and in a team?"

Now retaining a bit of the confidence from his last answer, Zack begins to respond within a few seconds. "In a team it would be easy! You could use that white dust to attack and force it to dodge to a specific place. Then Alton could hook onto it and carry Stahl up there to distract it with light attacks to its back. When it was forced into concentrating on them, I'd use my Huo Pao and shoot straight into it's chest! Bam! Just like that, we're having roast chicken for dinner!" Zack extends his arms out happily before continuing. "Fighting one alone would be pretty tough, though. I'm definitely not suited for air combat as much as you or Alton. I guess I'd try to clear out the area around me so that I couldn't lose sight of it. Then I'd wait for it to swoop down at me and try to grab me. When it came down, I'd launch myself above it with Volc-Cannus and then fire again in the air so that I came crashing back down onto its head or into its back. If I could paralyze its wings that way, then it'd be easy to just hammer into its head over and over." Zack felt good about his last answer, though he knew that a Nevermore's speed might make such a situation impossible.

"The team answer was good but you have to remember, Nevermore can shoot loose feathers at you, they have range."

"Then I guess I'd just get chopped into tiny pieces, huh?" Zack laughs nervously. Expecting a less than sympathetic response, Zack quickly goes back to talking. "N-no, but really. I guess I'd have to use a smokescreen so that it couldn't aim well. If I could predict its flight path before I set off the smoke, then I could propel myself into the air and take a shot at its head with my hammer. A hit from Volc-Cannus would definitely be enough to stun it for long enough that I could get onto its back and break its wings. From there, the original plan of smashing its head would work out fine." Zack shrugs at the end, hoping to make up for his careless comment before.

Jet chuckles a bit at the first comment before nodding at the rest. "That's good, that could work." He looks at the entrance to the arena and grumbles a bit.

"Not really." Stahl's voice came in, "A Nevermore is smarter then you think, and tougher too. Besides if it's flying around, you're not gonna get the leverage to swing your weapon without falling off." Walking up to the two, Stahl waved slightly.

"Nice of you to join us Stahl." Jet smiles as his teammate enters. "And Zack doesn't really need leverage, just a good grip. Volc-Cannus has a rocket engine in it, so it can swing without Zack actually needing to swing."

Stahl rolled his eyes, "And still hold on? Not happening." Crossing his arms, Stahl shook his head, "Sorry, hate to tell you this, but taking on a Nevermore alone is suicide."

"You'd be very surprised at what Zack can do. This guy took out a rather large portion of the forest in one hit."

"And that's a good thing...how?" Stahl raised an eyebrow, "Last I checked, wide scale property damage is what the Grim are supposed to do, not us."

"I'm saying that's how powerful he is, he wouldn't do it if it endangered someone's life. And my goal is to train us so that in a team or alone, any one of us could take out a Nevermore. Or any Grimm."

Stahl rolled his eyes, "Last I checked, some Grim are more then a match for a team of Hunters. Look, I'm not saying your a bad leader or Zack can fight a Nevermore, I'm saying that overconfidence will get you killed. My Uncle taught me that."

Alton swung through an archway in the upper level of the arena before letting himself fall, rolling to his feet at the edge of the team huddle.

"Well, the key to taking out any Grimm is identifying its primary strengths and neutralizing them. Nevermore? Flies. Target the wings, cripple his mobility, then take him out while he's vulnerable on the ground. Beowolves? Numbers and agility; keep them bunched together and use wide-reaching strikes. King Taijitu? Encircling tactics, stay out of their killzone and hammer from a distance... or for the more gung-ho Hunter, grab it by the head and don't let go - they may be the size of a bus, but they're still snakes."

Alton glanced at Stahl. "As for getting yourself killed taking on the bigger nasties, there's a different between fighting Grimm and fighting Grimm. They're literally the manifestation of darkness and the universe trying to kill us - brutal, but not smart. Play your strengths and there's not a Grimm you can't at least hold your own against."