The Ruins of Serathlia [Intermediate/Beginner Fantasy]

[Virgil Lifeson]

His guard was ready, and pushed the halberd harmlessly upwards...if only harmless by an inch or two. Eikre braced the impact, and shook his head twice, rapidly, to dispose of the collected sweat on his brow. Answering the attack, he brought his mace down low in a feint. The point? To waste Fayette's energy blocking it.  

[Blood_Covered_Pheonix]

Rinor sighed happily as she settled into the lotus position to begin her nightly meditation, her entire body was burning from exertion, her limbs screamed in pain and her lungs heaved for air as her sweat covered body slowly relaxed and her mind cleared.


As she reflected on it, the ninja found that her nightly work out had yielded satisfying results, she could recall the details clearly and her body was calming much faster, and she had done twenty more vertical push-ups than she was able to a month before, a steady increase, her clan would have been proud. This was a bittersweet thought for her, memories she rejected surfacing, only to be pushed down again. She forced the thoughts away and began to think only of her past weaknesses and how she had refined them into her strengths.


She meditated for only ten minutes, a quick look into the past was all a true ninja needed, to linger on a weakness or take to much pride in a strength was not only disgraceful, it could cost you your life.


After she had wiped herself down Rinor left her room and headed down to the training room, quessing that would be where the others would be, she was correct. She rolled her eyes as she walked in, seeing and hearing Lan jeering on as Fayette and Eikre faced off, at the least she could observe her allies in combat. She leaned against a wall as far from the crowd of guards, and as close to the duel as possible.  

[Otulissa]

Fayette blocked the mace's low feint, and then hastily thrust her halberd forward in a sort of sideways whack at Eikre. Fayette could feel her breath coming out in little pants, but she did not sweat that much...only a few sweat drops near her hairline and forehead. Fayette, then again, never really sweated that much. Anyhow, this spar was definitely a good workout for her.  

[Virgil Lifeson]

Fayette blocked the feint, as Eikre know that she would. She was making more and more hastily thought of moves, creating some sort of side-whack. Eikre answered it by rolling inside that thrust, putting his shield between himself and the axe-head, while using the momentum to swing his mace around in a horizontal arc. He was surprised to find that his sweaty palm could still hold the mace during such a move. Round two definitely provided a better workout that the first one.  

[Otulissa]

Fayette ducked, huffing softly, and then brought up the halberd as a sort of block to the mace. She also used her halberd to help her stand up straight and strong for a moment, so she could rest, and then spun the halberd, thrusting it again. Her hands gripped the halberd tightly, and she was feeling herself grow a bit more tired with each passing moment.  

[Virgil Lifeson]

Being the smart cookie that he was, Eikre took the halberd thrust, putting his shield between himself and the halberd. He shot out his left foot again, aiming between Fayette's feet to hook them down again.  

[Otulissa]

Fayette spotted Eikre's move of shooting out his left foot before it reached her feet and she stumbled back a few steps with an odd elegance to her step, and then pushed forward with brute strength, just running forward.  

[Virgil Lifeson]

Eikre thought he saw his chance to end this match quickly. When Fayette charged at him at an almost full run, he ducked down low and moved to one side. With that momentum, Eikre brought a low circle kick aimed at Fayette's pumping legs. If, and most likely when, she tripped, the idea was that Eikre would spring again, and pin her down to the ground, and therefore ending the match.  

[Otulissa]

((I'll let you win, Eikre. ^_^ Again. Since Fayette DOES need more practice with fighting. Eikre is much older than her right? Or is he around the same age...?))

Fayette realized what Eikre was trying to do all of a sudden, but by then it was too late. She struggled to stop, but instead, sort of skidded a bit before halting. After all, she had a strong momentum and a heavy weapon to add to the mass. Eikre's low circle kick tripped her. She landed on her belly, and then Fayette tried to use her halberd to trip Eikre too, by swinging it at his feet.

((You can let Eikre jump over the halberd or whatever. xD))  

[Virgil Lifeson]

[Aww, shucks. Maybe Eikre'll give Fayette lessons.]

After tripping Fayette, Eikre let out a quick, silent cheer. Failing to notice Fayette's last ditch attempt to win, he tripped over the halberd, and landed on her. "Hehe," he chuckled, "I think I win again."

He got off of Fayette, and wiped his forehead. There were cheers coming from around him, and he assumed that they were finished for today. He set his weapons down, and extended his arm as a gesture of help to Fayette, poor thing on the ground.  

[Irishroseh]

Lan grinned and cheered with the rest when Eikre won. It had been an amazing sight to see, moreso because she learned valuable things about her companions, like who was likely to use trickery and whatnot. She delegated the monies to those who won the betting, and kept people honest, which was a weird expierence for her. She spotted Rin and waved, but then went out on to the mat to congratulate the two contestants.
 

[Blood_Covered_Pheonix]

Rinor sighed as she stood up. Watching the match had allowed her to see her companions fighting abilties and although neither of them were useing their weapons of choice it had allowed her to make some mental changes to her own fighting style, so she could better fight along side them. As she went over the match to find weak points in the fighting stances of her companions, she was quite impressed to find that they could handle themselves rather well and the only thing that she found more than moderatly annoying was that Eikre had not payed enough attention to Fayette after she fell and that could have cost him dearly in a real battle.

One regret she had was that she had yet to see Lan in action, but jugding by the girl's personality, her fighting style would be so spontanious that it would be pointless to study. She nodded at Lan when she waved and leaned against the wall as she waited for things to settle.  

[Otulissa]

Fayette giggled when Eikre fell on top of her, and she sighed breathlessly; she had lost. Again. This was rather annoying and upsetting, but she figured she brought it upon herself. After all, I haven't practiced all that much lately... Fayette thought with regret. Fayette accepted the gesture of help from Eikre, and soon, she was on her feet with her halberd in her hand.

"I think that's enough for today," she said.  

[Virgil Lifeson]

"I think so too...," Eikre said, responding to Fayette's request to stop, "You did well, even if you lost. It was an amazing workout." Taking Fayette's halberd, and setting it back on the racks, along with his own chosen weaponry. He thought of the time, and realized he should clean up before getting to the guard's wanted concert.

With a wave to his friends, he explained, "I'm heading off to go clean myself up and get ready for that performance for us staying here. If you guys want to stay here, that's fine. Just so you lot know." And hurried off.  

[Blood_Covered_Pheonix]

Rinor pushed her hands into her pockets and leaned against the wall, debating wether or not to go look for the larder and steal some food from it. She was confident in her abilties as a thief so it wasn't a debate of risks, but a debate of whether she should just ask for some provisions, but that felt too much like begging, something she far to proud to do.

She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, pushed off the wall and then headed to where Lan was, once she was close enough she asked, "You wanna go a roundd?" As much as she hated to admit it she did in fact like sparring, though she ususally had keep foucus on how much force she was useing or she coudl run the risk of killing her partner.