"And you had to put her arm around her like that? Maybe she'd have been willing if you'd just asked instead of tried to force it." A shrinking barrier around her. All right - she'd just have to punch right through it. Nanoha's grip tightened on Raising Heart as she pointed the spearhead up at her opponent, centering him in her firing lock - out here over the water, there wasn't much he could use as a shield.

She tried not to let that comment about Fate being 'bangable' - and his true intentions - get to her, she really did. But it wasn't as effective as she might have hoped.

"Divine."

A spark of light flared up at the tip of the spear even as the dome shrunk tinier and tinier around her, quickly growing into a large ball of light that crackled with barely restrained magical energy. Nanoha gritted her teeth ... and then abruptly changed tactics mid-spell. "Restrict Lock!"

Don't look now, Julian, but there were little rings of hard magenta light quickly contracting around your wrists and ankles. If he didn't pull away in time, they'd lock and hold him in place - where he couldn't dodge Nanoha's spell. Which had grown quite large by now.

"And keep your hands off of my Fate!"

"Buster."

She fired.