As Aurelia emerges from the forest, her mount quickly slows to a halt rather than continue charging at her opponent. This might come as a shock to a few, but Aurelia had no intention of charging her opponent’s current position.
There were a number of reasons for that, but the biggest reason was that Airi was standing in a literal minefield, and one false step could leave Noble Steed crippled before Aurelia could launch an attack. Airi had also collected a fair amount of ice dust, as well, and no doubt she had been spending time formulating a counter attack for any attempted charge attempts.
Besides which, every charge Aurelia has made on foot has been met with some form of punishment, and that pattern probably won’t change with the appearance of glorified set of legs. She’ll need another method of attack. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have any other method of attack.
Aurelia has no dust, and the bullets in her sheathe are worthless without Dusk. If Aurelia had more Aura, she might’ve charged anyway, relying on sheer power to make up the difference. However, with her Aura firmly in the yellow as it is, she would almost certainly lose the battle of attrition at this stage.
In short, Airi has the advantage in territory, weapon availability, and vitality, placing Aurelia firmly in check. However, the cavalier still has a few tricks to play. Right now, the biggest problem is Airi’s position in the ice dust field. If Aurelia could find a way to force her opponent to compromise her advantage there, Noble Steed’s mobility would be able to come into play. Unfortunately, the only thing that would motivate Airi to leave at this point is a tactically beneficial reason, if Aurelia’s gauging her opponent’s personality correctly. That means Aurelia’s going to need to “convince” her that there’s a tactical reason to leave.
To that end, the knight does a few things. First, she guides her semblance to Airi’s left to the far side of the middle section of the Arena before turning back around. She then switches her sword and shield into the opposite hands and then brings up the shield to face her opponent. Then, the unicorn slowly paces toward the opposite side. Finally, with her setup complete, she issues a taunt, ”Well, are you going to stare at me, or are we actually going to fight for a change?”
She’s fully aware that Airi has ranged attack capabilities, but if Aurelia pulls this maneuver off correctly, she might be able to bluff Airi into thinking ranged battle is pointless. And since Aurelia wouldn’t be willing to charge into Airi’s territory, the only option she’d have left is to enter melee. At least, that’s the plan on paper.