So there seems to be a misunderstanding in quite a few things which caused a complete ignorance of the timeline I established, causing a few things to happen here.
Jove wrote:As he continued with the "Ah," Jove's mouth opened. A small orb would be seen in his mouth, a black magic circle in front of him, and then a flaming ball two meters in diameter shot towards them, with its center directed on Erebus.
This is the first major thing. The attack is 2 meters in diameter. That is its condensed form. The ball that forms in his mouth is just the visual que of the attack. This means that Jove cannot be seen at all behind it, and also that if left unblocked, it'll definitely hit Erebus and (more than likely) Akihiko as well depending on how close he is.
Jove wrote:This ball had formed in front of Jove before firing off, maintaining a distance that ensured it would not contact and harm him. This was important, for as the spell formed and shot forward, Jove had been raising his hand up towards his mouth. Immediately after the attack shot forward, which was instantly after forming, Jove would put his finger up to his lips as his mouth closed, turning himself invisible.
So this part establishes that I'm already moving my hand to activate my invisibility spell as this spell is forming/shot. Right after the shot fires off, my finger goes to my lip. This action would take a fraction of a second, and my body would go fully invisible in a tenth of a second or less, meaning that I'm fully invisible before the attack even reaches you.
I won't quote the last part, but that involves me beginning to jog forward behind the attack.
For Erebus' posts now:
Erebus wrote:When Jove opens his mouth wide, he revealed a ball of energy, a red orb at the center of his open mouth. This was more than enough, coupled with the seal to force Erebus to grab the pipe from his pocket and place it on his lips. As the ball was small in diameter and fast at close range, Erebus had a narrow time limit to act. He decidedly thrusted his dagger forward, and used his offhand to inhale from the Hermit’s Pipe, at simultaneous moment and will.
So pretty straight forward. You see the blast, and seeing the ball of energy is your prompt to start acting. However, as soon as the ball of energy is there, it's fired off. So what you're really reacting to is me launching the attack (as they are one and the same). This puts you on the 1 second time clock. During this time, you take your offhand, reach it into your pocket, pull out your relic, and take a deep inhale while stabbing forward your dagger. That's fine, but your dagger cannot defend you from the attack.
So while the dagger takes A rank damage, so too do you. Since the attack encompasses your full body, I basically get to choose where takes the damage, and for this scenario I choose your helmet.
Erebus wrote:In level with his daggers as he slashed against Sinful Breath’s small condensed form, the steel fared against the force of the attack— sending sparks of crimson energy that didn’t harm him. The weapon successfully defended, something he was thankful for. The blast ended quickly and was likely another warning shot. Baruimbas took a loss to weapon durability but overall nothing too serious, Erebus pushed himself to the right side a short bit in case the spell had added diameter or frame beyond its small form.
This part matters due to the fact that you establish how you space things out. You stab into the attack (expecting it to dissipate) and as the sparks fly and everything, you then choose to push to the right "a short bit", which takes time. How much time? Well, you also claim to be looking at me long enough for this description;
Erebus wrote:Forwarded the very instant Sinful Breath fizzled at the destruction against Bariumbas, and the moment a still visible Jove would be removing a finger from his lips, Erebus would see him start to turn invisible and start propelling forward in a jog, to which Erebus could still visibly see him, for only a short moment before he was camouflage. This wouldn’t be enough time to do much however as Jove would be going forward just as Erebus spell headed the same direction.
So this states that before your attack went off (as it would have come from your mouth and clouded an entire 8 meter by 3 meter area, clouding your vision), there was enough time going by that you'd be able to see me lower my finger from my lips and begin jogging. This doesn't change anything, but it does give me a window of opportunity before you attack in order to act.
So then what we establish with this is that my attack goes off and takes a second to reach you. In that time I go invisible and begin jogging forward, having just begun to move forward. With the timing of everything, I've probably only traveled a meter.
You were unable to see me turn invisible, and therefore have
no information on what I did, my location, or the fact that I started moving forward. You also were unable to actually defend against my attack with your weapon, as that is not allowed. Therefore, your weapon takes A rank damage, as does your helmet. I have covered approximately a meter by the time the fireball goes past and I see you acting.
It is also important to note that you were shooting the attack towards my last perceived location, which is 10 meters away. That means once the attack hits that point and reaches its full size, you're not standing in it any longer. You're 1-2m outside its effective range.
As for Akihiko, I don't know how close he was standing to you. I'm unsure it was ever definitely described, and so the fact that he wants to just continue with his previous timeline, move, and exit, is fine with me. He just kinda... Talks while I'm attacking you? Then runs away? So my post will be taking place with that established timeline.