[Flashback] Fencing on the docks (Solo)

[Carsten]

Timestamp: 3rd of Summer, 506 AV.

Carsten walked along the docks, the pain in his back was retreating. His workout session earlier that day had been absolutely brutal; he would have to avoid bending too much in the duels. As he neared the place where “The Ramming Boar”, a former warship that had been bought and changed into a merchant vessel, lay, he saw a small crowd assembling. The First Mate, Enar, was known for arranging duels before his ship set out, to ease the men he said.

As Carsten approached the crowd, he saw that there were several captains and first mates there. Unusual, the duels were normally fought by midshipmen and sailors. “Carsten!”] a voice yelled from the crowd, and Captain Diego jogged towards him. Diego was the only sailor that liked Carsten, and a very fine fencer as well. “Diego,” Carsten said with a slight smile. The Captain grinned, revealing coloured teeth, and the lack of at least five. His large nose had been broken several times, and he had a problem with his eyes blinking too often. His arms and legs were covered in scars, and his skin was dark from several days at sea. He was losing his hair on the head, but seemed to compensate with a large, dark beard. “Carsten, you bastard, you made it!” he growled with his deep voice. Carsten had never understood why he kept insulting him, but assumed it was a sailor thing. “I would not miss this opportunity to test myself against the sailors of Zeltiva.” Carsten stated, as he shook Diego’s hand, and they walked to join the crowd. “It has already started, I see.”

The duelists were two sailors, both fighting with cutlasses. One of them threw himself at the other, completely mindless of his defence, and the other disarmed him by a swift cut across his thigh. “No, that’s just to entertain the crowds. I heard Enar has something special in mind tonight. You can see all the high ranking folk, can’t you?” Carsten just nodded as he looked. Then First Mate Enar walked down the ramp from his ship. The crowd fell silent, and the duels stopped as he began to speak. His voice was softer than you would think from his appearance. His head was too small for his broad shoulders, and he moved as if something on his back itched. “Tonight will be a night to remember. For tonight, we shall have a tournament. You will be put in eight groups of ten each. Only two from each group will go on. Move into groups now.” He said it as a command, and the crowd that had a minute ago been standing around with no organization, quickly moved into groups of ten.

Carsten eyed his competition, five sailors, none looked too competent. A Second Mate and his Captain neither looked too tough, though the Second Mate might prove a problem. On first sight, his worst opponents looked to be the two Midshipmen. Large as golems and they looked meaner than Carsten had ever imagined a golem, they seemed to be veterans.

Then Enar explained that each group would fight one fight at all times, that the duel was to first blood, that the weapon had to be agreed upon by both parts, and that one victory meant one point, the two with most points continued on. Then the duels began.

[Carsten]

Carsten’s first bout was against one of the Midshipmen. The weapon was agreed upon to be the rapier. Because of his back pain, Carsten couldn’t properly evade the attacks, and decided to go for an aggressive tactic. He began with a thrust to the Midshipman’s stomach, but he skillfully parried and attempted a riposte which was evaded. Carsten noticed he lacked speed, and attacked with two quick thrusts, both barely parried. When his opponent tried to gain the attack, Carsten didn’t let him. He followed up his parries with quick ripostes, and after four of them, the midshipman was too slow and he got stabbed in the forearm.

The second duel was fought with daggers, a weapon Carsten looked upon as defensive only, but the Second Mate insisted. The duel began slowly, neither seemed to want to attack first, until Carsten got tired of it, and suddenly moved close. The Second Mate dodged, but Carsten whirled around quicker than him and cut, but he hit only his shirt. The Second Mate moved back, and when Carsten thought he would charge, he remained on the defensive. He seems nervous, Carsten observed, before moving close again. Had he used a rapier he would have ended it now, a few quick attacks would have defeated him, but now he had go get in close. He neared him slowly, before suddenly throwing himself forward, stretching his body as much as he could, grabbed the Second Mate’s wrist with his left hand and stabbed him with his own dagger. The stab had been deeper than he had wished, but the Second Mate didn’t look disappointed, in fact he looked relieved. Carsten never got the chance to even exchange some words with him.

His third fight was against one of the sailors, using rapiers. It was one of the highest paced duels in his life. The sailor was quick and but not defensive enough. After several parries, Carsten lunge in, but the sailor’s rapier was caught in his hilt, and when Carsten tried to retreat, the other rapier broke in two. Carsten threw himself backwards, landing on his back, to avoid the splinters from the broken blade, but the sailor wasn’t quick enough and was hit several places. He went down in tears, blood and screams, but survived.

The rest of the initial duels went well for Carsten. He defeated the other sailors and the second midshipman. The final battle was against the Captain, who had as many points as the midshipman and had to defeat Carsten to go on. The fight was a tough one. The weapons were cutlasses, a weapon Carsten hadn’t had much time to practice with. The Captain started aggressively, pushing the attack, but Carsten’s footwork was far superior. He evaded, parried, riposted, and almost got him off balance with an excellently carried out fleche, but the Captain was tough, and quick. When he riposted one of Carsten’s attacks, and managed to hit his left forearm, he thought he won, but no blood was drawn. His hardened and malformed forearm did not bleed from the hit, and when the captain turned to celebrate with his friends, Carsten cut his shoulder slightly, just enough to cause it to bleed.

“He attacked me after the fight was done!” the captain screamed. “The fight was not over. I do not bleed.” Carsten replied, calmly. “You cheating, soulless bastard! I cut you. Everyone saw, you must have… magicked the blood away.” The captain spat. Several members of the audience had joined the commotion, and people were screaming and yelling at each other, while Carsten stood calmly in the center of it all, making no expression. His back was hurting from the duels, and he Severed himself. It was always a strange feeling, to suddenly feel so little. A small shock, not a painful one, just a type of jolt, and the pain subdued. When he opened his eyes to study the scene, First Mate Enar and the Captain were arguing, and the rest were quiet. “The rules are that the duel is until blood is drawn, his blood wasn’t, and yours was. End of discussion, this is my tournament, Captain.” Said Enar, and settled the discussion. With several curses the Captain retreated to his ship, “The Ramming Boar”; First Mate Enar’s ship. “He is your Captain?” Carsten asked, and Enar nodded. “It was not wise to provoke him. You could have given him the victory, but now he is angry with you. I have never met you, but he is your Captain, nothing forced you to stand up for me.” Carsten said, and then Enar turned to him. “But handing him an unfair victory would not be right, not to you nor anyone else.” He said, and looked into Carsten’s eyes, who looked puzzled at his reason. For a reason Carsten did not understand, sadness crept over Enar’s face when he noticed this. “Let us… Move on with the tournament.” He said, louder, still almost shaken.

[Carsten]

In the first round Carsten met a very small sailor, probably 20 cm smaller than Carsten himself, who was not a remarkably tall man. This made for a new challenge, and the sailor insisted they fight with daggers. Carsten had used daggers before, but mostly as defensive weapons, for parrying. He feared this might prove a challenge.

The duel began with the small sailor moving quickly towards him, before cutting to the left and attempting to stab Carsten’s leg, but Carsten had a better reach and attacked first. The attack was parried, but a follow-up attack by Carsten got the small man off balance, but he was too quick back on his feet and pressing the attack. A parried attack was followed by a riposte, and once again Carsten’s reach put the small man off balance, but his opponent was too quick and recovered. It was in fact his speed that ended the duel, when he charged Carsten, he attempted to almost run him down, but Carsten maneuvered to the side and the small man fell on his feet in a pathetic attempt to follow his movement. This left his back open to a cut by Carsten, which ended the duel.
None seemed impressed by his victory, in fact many thought little of Carsten after the final group duel, but these were things Carsten did not care about.

Before the next fight, there was a small break, and while most moved into taverns, fenced or gambled, Carsten slowly unsevered himself, and allowed pain and other feelings back. It was strenuous for his brain to keep it up for long, and he spent the rest of the pause meditating, to relax his brain.

In the quarter final he met Captain Diego, who was grinning as he got ready. “Cutlasses?” he asked, and Carsten nodded. When he had readied his weapon, he slowly said: “Do not go easy on me.” That seemed to amuse the old man greatly, and he grinned again. “Go easy on you? HAH! I beat you last time, and I’m gonna beat you now as well! And handily!” then he laughed, and charged.

Carsten was ready, and parried the attack, while moving to the side to get a good riposte. Diego was too quick, but Carsten’s reaction caught him off guard, he seemed genuinely surprised. “Well done, lad.” He growled. Then he grinned again, and attacked. Carsten remained on the defensive, but he felt it strain on his back, and when he managed to disengage and get some distance between him and Diego, he wasted no time. He attempted a fleche, and only some excellent maneuvering by Diego saved him, but he was not prepared for the next attack. Carsten swung his cutlass towards his mid-section, but when the blades met, he pretended to disengage, but in fact he twisted the blade and swung upwards, towards his armpit. Diego threw himself back on the ground to avoid the attack, but fell badly and had troubles getting up. As he lay on the ground he parried one, two, three quick attacks by Carsten, before managing to jump up and acquire some distance. “You’re bloody fast!” he said, testing Carsten’s defenses a few times. But Carsten noticed he was having trouble with his right hip, pretending not to notice, he attacked towards the left twice, before feinting a third attack towards the left, but in reality he cut towards the right, and catching Diego off guard with his bad hip caused him to lose balance, and Carsten could easily draw blood from him.

“Well… You’ve gotten better. That was some quick thinking, you bloody bastard!” he laughed. “Is your hip all right?” Carsten simply asked, while catching his breath. “It’ll be fine. You’re in the semifinals, lad! Well done. Know that you’ve got at least one person there cheering for you.” He smiled, gave Carsten a pat on the shoulder, and joined the crowd again.

In the semi final he met the midshipman from the group stages, and once again the fight would be with the preferred weapon of both, the rapier. No words were spoken before the fight, and almost a hundred seamen had gathered around them in a circle, to watch it. This time Carsten initiated the fight with a thrust towards his midsection. A parry and riposte followed, and then they disengaged, before the midshipman threw himself at Carsten. A series of parries and ripostes followed, at least a dozen. Carsten closed his mind, focusing only on the fight; the only sound was the clash of the rapiers as they surged back and forth across the ring. Then the midshipman disengaged, he looked tired. Carsten pressed the attack again, using his rapier to force the midshipman on the defensive. This time there would be no back and forth fencing, as he didn’t allow his opponent a time to riposte. This tactic tired him as well though, highly aggressive tactics were exhausting, and he felt almost lucky when the midshipman finally couldn’t take anymore and managed to disengage.

The midshipman tried to press the attack, but Carsten saw the feint, and decided to attempt a fleche as his response. The result was far more successful than he had imagined, as the midshipman couldn’t parry fast enough, and the point of the rapier hit his chest. It wasn’t deep, but blood trinkled out nonetheless. And so Carsten was in the final.

[Carsten]

His opponent in the final was the famous Commodore Marco Materri, a star in the Zeltivan navy, leading one of the deadliest crews and one of the deadliest ships. The weapon chosen was a rapier, something which suited Carsten very well; it was his preferred weapon after all. Carsten had seen Marco fight before, and knew it would be no easy fight, he was quick, smart and good both offensive and defensive, but the two had never fought before.

The fight started with Carsten moving forward with a thrust, which was easily parried by Marco who riposted and attempted to catch Carsten off balance with a strange wrist movement. He twirled his wrist around while thrusting his weapon forward and it almost succeeded, but Carsten skillfully dodged. They stepped back, and this time Marco moved forward. The rapiers connected once, twice, Marco dodged a thrust, and tried to come around behind Carsten, but again his footwork was superior and he turned and their blades connected one more time. Once more they moved away from each other, but while Marco was backing, Carsten suddenly moved forward again with a fleche. A masterful jump backwards coupled with a perfect parry got Marco away, but Carsten regained his balance by the time Marco attacked. Their blades clashed, and Carsten diverted Marco’s blade from his own body several times as he was forced on the defensive. Marco tried to overwhelm him, but had to seize his attacks when Carsten’s riposte was only centimeters from his body. Two quick attacks were easily parried by Marco, and he gained the initiative again. Then he started moving while their blades clashed, both trying to get past the others defenses, and suddenly it started going too fast for the audience to really pay attention. Parry, thrust, move, parry, thrust, move, parry, thrust, move, parry, parry, thrust, move, thrust, move, parry. Nothing else went through Carstens mind, and he felt himself becoming tired. Then he had to disengage, and move back, but Marco refused to let him, and kept up the attack. Carsten needed to catch his breath, so he stepped back, while thrusting his rapier forward as far as he could, but even though he gained the distance, he lost his balance. Marco moved forward, tried to get around Carsten, but when he attempted to follow and parry the attack he knew was coming; he almost fell to the ground. While using his hands to remain on his feet, Marco had no trouble cutting his thigh, and blood slowly trickled out.

Then Carsten sat down, he was tired and he had been beaten.He heard some of the sailors insult him and his mother, but he just ignored them, and most joined Marco in his celebration. “That was a damn fine duel, Carsten. You should be proud for not falling earlier, Materri is as lethal with a rapier as any, and you gave him a lot of trouble.” Diego said, as offered a hand to help Carsten up. Carsten accepted, and straightened himself. “He was better than me. This time.” Was all Carsten said, then he offered Diego a smile and the old captain grinned, and patted him on the shoulder. Then they parted ways.

As Carsten walked along the docks on his way back, he saw the sun rise, and sat down with his back against a wall, and watched the sun rise over the ocean.

-Finished-

[Oracle]

Name: Carsten

XP Award:

• Weapon, Rapier +3
• Weapon, Dagger +2
• Meditation +1
• Weapon, Cutlasses +1

Lore:

• The Pain of a Good Workout
• Making it to the Finals
• Severing First Hand
• Noticing and Using Advantages
• Almost Winning..Otherwise Known and Losing

Notes: Great read. As requested I would be happy to offer feedback on your writing.

I really love your use of descriptive language. I really got a feel for Diego and the other NPC's involved. Might be borrowing Diego as an NPC though I like him.

You have a good writing style, your posts show economy with words. This is a major plus, it doesn't load everything down with lengthy useless language; however, I would like to seem some long sweeping battle scenes at some point from you. Really push your abilities as a writer and paint for us a battle of epic proportions. For this thread though I feel your choice of words was good and kept everything entertaining while getting the point across.

This thread really shows both you IC and OOC knowledge about fencing, so either you are really good in real life or really know how to do your research. Kudos to you. <3

I would like to see more description of the moves themselves, for anyone reading who doesn't know much about fencing. While it shows great knowledge for both the PC and yourself it may not describe what is going on as well as naming the move but maybe describing the movement itself.

Overall: Great read. Really enjoyed it. Cheers.

If you have any concerns with this please PM me and let me know.

A.S. Oracle