<div class="floatright">(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j480/Erion2451/986826-bigthumbnail_zpsbc53c8f6.jpg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Gwen Albion<br/><strong>Team:</strong>Ghast<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Combat Arena, Cafeteria<br/><strong>Tags:</strong>Members of Ghast, All<br/><hr/><br/><strong>Day Zero</strong><br/><br/>♬<em>I burn!</em>♬<br/><br/>The entrance exam for Avalanche Academy.  She was finally here.<br/><br/>♬<em>Beware the light is fading<br/>Beware as the dark returns<br/>Your world’s in the way of harm<br/>Even brilliant lights will cease to burn</em>♬<br/><br/>After three years at Signal and graduating with high marks.  She had arrived.<br/><br/>♬<em>Hotter than the sun in the middle of July</em>♬<br/><br/>The mix blared from the orange and purple headphones Gwen was wearing and it was likely the students standing nearby could hear the words as clearly as she could.  The day had been okay, but was quickly getting better.  It was never a good start when a day began with a written exam.  Even though Gwen had known the majority of the answers, controlling her test anxiety had been taxing.  She had focused on her breathing and used every trick she knew to calm herself.  It hadn’t helped that the Headmaster had been the proctor, even if he was a nice old man.  There was nothing she could do about that now, and the music, she was currently listening to, chased away the memories and tension caused by the first test.<br/><br/>♬<em>There’s a day when all hearts will be broken<br/>When a shadow will cast out the light<br/>There’s a day when all courage collapses<br/>And our friends turn and leave us behind</em>♬<br/><br/>The verbal practical had been much easier.  In Gwen’s opinion all tests should be verbal.  She’d grown up using and knowing the material on this practicum.  She knew those things as well as she knew her name, or her weapon!<br/><br/>♬<em>Come at me<br/>And you'll see</em>♬<br/><br/>The last thirty minutes had been better.  A lot better.  Fighting was fun.  It made her feel alive, and she distantly wondered if it was something similar to what her brother or father had felt when they had engaged the Grim.<br/><br/>♬<em>You're starting up a fight that you just can't finish<br/>Sending out your armies but you still can't win<br/>Listen up silly boy cuz I'm going to tell you why</em>♬<br/><br/>Beowulfs, she hadn’t taken them lightly.  They were, admittedly, the weakest of the Grim, but they were still soulless creatures of darkness and animosity.  When her turn had come, Gwen had launched herself at the closest one and spun Ascalon, her custom harpoon, so quickly some may not have seen the weapon connect with the creature.  Gwen had known it was a killing blow as soon as the blade of Ascalon connected and then turned her attention to her next opponent.  The weapon’s arc continued its motion, conserving energy, momentum, and time.  The butt of the shaft crashed into the muzzle of the next Beowulf, only an instant before Gwen pulled the trigger and emptied the barrels of the shotgun, which comprised the bottom third of the harpoon and turned the Wulf’s face into red mist and bone fragments.  She had leapt over the lunge of the third Beowulf, pulled the lever of the shotgun, re-chambering the barrels, and landed a few feet behind the attacking opponent.  A quick and decisive strike to the creature’s unprotected back, severing its spine, put it down for good.  She stepped on the Beowulf’s back, pressed the button along Ascalon’s shaft, which released the barbs along the blade, and pulled it from the fallen monster in one fluid motion.  Her fight, while fun, had lasted a mere handful of seconds.<br/><br/>♬<em>The sun won’t rise<br/>As the sky rains blood<br/>And the end draws near<br/>I may fall<br/>But not like this, it won’t be by your hands</em>♬<br/><br/>Gwen was pumping herself up.  Even though she was listening to her headphones, she wasn’t completely drowning out the world.  She was watching, and studying, the professor’s movements and, to a lesser degree, her fellow students’.  A few had impressed her.  Several made her wonder why they were here.  Professor Armina Horowitz, however, was anything but a disappointment.  She was everything Gwen expected a formally trained Huntress to be.  Armina Horowitz embodied everything Gwen wanted to be; cool, collected, and awesome.  Just watching the combat tests of the others was enough to make Gwen forget about the written test earlier.<br/><br/>♬<em>Bring it all – it’s not enough to take me down</em>♬<br/><br/>Gwen visibly winced as Armina delivered a flying axe kick to a kid who’d just entered the arena.  The fight had lasted less than a second.  The fastest yet!<br/><br/>♬<em>There’s a moment that changes a life when<br/>We do something that no one else can</em>♬<br/><br/>A boy with a chakram launcher tapped Gwen on the shoulder and mouthed something to her.<br/><br/>♬<em>I may fall<br/>But not this place; not today<br/>It’ll not be by your hand<br/>It’ll be your blood that’s red like roses<br/>When I make my final stand</em>♬<br/><br/>She clicked off her music and removed her headphones and gave him a questioning look.<br/><br/>“You’re up,” he said.<br/><br/><strong>“Oh, thanks!”</strong><br/><br/>Gwen had a bounce in her step as she entered the arena, and held her weapon, high on the shaft, her hand close to the blade.  The smile on her face spread from ear to ear.  Across the arena had been Professor Armina wielding her Escrima staff.<br/><br/>This was going to be awesome.<br/><br/>When the signal to begin was given, Gwen flashed across the field in a puff of orange daffodils.  She moved faster than the average eye could track, making it look like she teleported.  The clang of metal on metal echoed throughout the arena as Armina’s staff deftly blocked the swing of Gwen’s harpoon.  The ring of shaft upon shaft sounded half a dozen more times as the combatants traded turns parrying blows.  Then, Gwen disappeared into another puff of orange flowers an instant before Armina’s staff swept through them.<br/><br/>Gwen appeared behind the combat instructor and swung Ascalon’s shaft downward at Armina’s head.  The professor was just as quick, having tucked into a roll and used the momentum of her swing to carry her safely out of harm.  Before coming out of her roll, Armina was attacking again.  The bo staff flashed out and swept toward Gwen’s feet.  It was only by a hair that Gwen was able to dodge with a back-spring out of danger.<br/><br/>In midair, Gwen counterattacked.  Her hands slid the length of the harpoon’s shaft which thrust forward with great speed, seemingly doubling the weapon’s previous range.  Armina, once more, parried the attack and immediately countered.  The bo staff spun in an attempt to knock Gwen’s weapon from her hand, and, for a moment, it did exactly that.  Gwen was quick though, or perhaps she had predicted Armina’s attack.  Regardless, Ascalon was caught in Gwen’s opposite hand, and, as she controlled the momentum of the weapon, she ducked low and allowed it to spin over her head, sweeping wide and keeping Armina at a distance.<br/><br/>It may have been highly unbelievable that Gwen’s smile could grow any larger, but it did.  As the harpoon spun above Gwen’s head, the shotgun, at the base of the shaft, thundered and sent the muzzle flash and shells toward the combat instructor.  At the same time, at the opposite end of the harpoon’s long shaft, the blade was launched, attached to a long golden chain.  Even before the blade was able to approach the chain’s limit, it was being pulled toward Armina, by the momentum of the shaft, still held in Gwen’s hand and propelled faster from the recoil of the gun.<br/><br/>As if waiting for it, Armina easily blocked the chained attack with her staff.  Blade and chain wrapped around the professor’s weapon, and Gwen pulled.  As Gwen pulled, Armina simply separated her staff into two Escema sticks.  The sudden loss of resistance sent the chain and blade back toward Gwen, even as Armina charged forward, capitalizing on the sudden shift in the fight.  Gwen responded to the charging teacher by pressing a button upon the shaft of Ascalon and then pulling her weapon apart into its gunchaku form.  The loud pulley, located inside Ascalon, filled the arena and drowned out the all too familiar clang of weapon upon weapon, as the extended chain began to recoil back into Ascalon.  It was obvious, to even the most novice student, that Gwen had overextended herself with her gambit and was now pressed by a stronger, faster, and more experienced combatant.  Six shotgun blasts filled the arena in quick succession, as the gunchaku was cocked and re-chambered, while it spun blindingly fast in an attempt to ward Armina off.<br/><br/>In the end, Armina would have none of it.  She was a true predator and she smelled blood in the water.  Clouds of orange daffodils quickly filled the arena, keeping Gwen one step ahead of her pursuer, yet did little but keep Armina from landing a deciding blow.  When the blow finally did land and dropped Gwen’s Aura below the safe limit to compete, laughter could be heard.  Gwen, the orange haired girl wearing laughing skull emblems, had begun laughing while desperately trying to catch her breath.  There was no doubt that the blow she had received had been vicious, and despite her aura absorbing a great deal of it, it had certainly hurt.  However, pain and death were inevitabilities in Eis, and the native had learned to laugh at pain a long time ago.  Besides, the fight had been the most fun Gwen had experienced in a very long time.<br/><br/>Before leaving the arena, she respectfully bowed to the instructor.  She hoped that her laughter hadn’t offended Armina, but at the time she hadn’t been able to contain it.  The fight had likely given both combatants a much better understanding of each other.  It surely had for Gwen.<br/><br/>The rest of the day had been a long slow drag.  Gwen had been satisfied with her duel, but had wanted to fight again.  She had gone to Professor T, like everyone else, and underwent the same bizarre physical.  Gwen’s entire body had ached, not from the duel, but with the need to hold her weapon in the presence of the very peculiar nurse.  Gwen had rushed to get out of the examination room as soon as she had been told she could go.<br/><br/>That evening there had been no shortage of fellow students who now looked at her as if she had gone crazy.  She had smiled, complimented them on their fight, if they deserved it, and told them she loved their weapon, because there wasn’t a weapon ever crafted that Gwen did not love.  She had sought out students who had impressed her and done her best to be friendly with them.  The best part of the entire night had come when the more confident boys walked around the large common room without their shirts.<br/><br/><strong>Day One</strong><br/><br/>Gwen woke upon the first chime of the bell and rolled out of her sleeping bag.  She was accustomed to sleeping on the floor and after the workout the day before, had slept like a baby.  She continued to be sociable to the same people she’d been friendly with the night before.  She seemed to be one of the few who actually spoke during breakfast.  Gwen wanted to surround herself with the best candidates.  It was the only way she’d ever become the best Huntress Eis has ever seen.  That was her dream and Avalanche Academy was simply the next step.