Fast and Furious (Almech)

[Eridanus]

Day 48, Winter of 511 AV
Late Morning
Akeldama Colosseum

It was a day as normal as any other, except that Eridanus was quite seized by a certain impulse to engage in battle. There were no sparring clubs, and somehow the friends that came along with him from Sunberth could not be found or were otherwise busy. What other method, then, to test his mettle than to participate in the brutal Colosseum battles? It was honestly hard to believe that he would risk his life on such a fanciful whim, but it must be noted that years of experience and world-weary cynicism, as well as the everyday brutalities of Sunberth, had quite toughened up the vantha's world-view.

The Colosseum was nowhere as brutal as the blood pits back in the lawless city and though it was not perfectly safe it would no doubt promise excitement and adrenaline. Eri had found the ringmaster of the Colosseum easily, and because of his novice status was assigned an early morning slot where business tended to be slow. There would still be people watching of course, but few tickets were sold due to the bad timing; everyone else was off at work instead of indulging in such entertainment.

And so he found himself entering the arena in his usual cloth tunic, his weapon harness on his back and his characteristic cold-iron and steel blades strapped securely on his back. The ringmaster had not deemed it important to tell him the details and so he found himself in the arena waiting for the rest of the participants to join. This was meant to be a 'light show' where it was a simple test of one's combative mettle. No point wasting blood-shed and brutal savagery when audience ratings were low - such excitement was better scheduled during peak periods.

He did not know if it was a tag team battle, a simple case of a versus match, or even a free-for-all. He would just have to wait.

[Almech]

Almech entered the arena with a drag in his step, he'd only woken up a little while ago, his robe covered his body and his hood covered his face, except for the structure of his chin. Even though the coloseum was essentially empty what fans were there roared upon seeing one of their favorite native combatants, dragging his scythe behind him pointed end facing up. He could hear their chanting "car,ni,vore....car,ni,vore" a name pegged on him because of a few fights where he'd actually eaten his opponent, not entirely, it was more like an insult to their corpse after he killed them to take a few ites. Also he was an animal afterall and he sometimes couldn't fight his compulsion to consume meat, even if that meant eating small pieces of his opponent mid combat, which more often than not, was the case.

He stoood straight from his slouching posture, Eridanus would be able to see the glinting shine in his dual colored eyes, he let out a huge yawn followed by a full body spasm as a dog would when shaking off water. His vertibrae popped into a more comfortable position and he took a deep he stayed up late, he was still very tired, he wanted to finish this quickly so he could take a nap. Without warning Almech was kicking up dust as he rushed his opponent, he swung his scythe with a swiftness, aiming to hook Eri's legs, it would probably take eri a while to notice that the blade was sharpened on the wrong side, the normally sharp part of the scythe was dull and vice versa. This made it a tricky weapon, if he indeed hook eri's legs almech would simply pull back and pull his legs out from under him, followed by a hard stomp at his gut.

[Eridanus]

A hooded man wielding what seemed to be a pretty intimidating scythe entered the arena, and even though the seats were not fully packed the man seemed to be a regular enough for the crowd to chant the word "Carnivore" repeatedly. That must be his stage name, and when the ringmaster made a gesture for them to begin he figured that it was a straight forward versus match. A newbie against a seasoned gladiator. An unknown versus a crowd favorite.

Not to mention that ridiculously huge scythe.

The gladiator glanced at Eri and the vantha could see dual coloured eyes which made the man seemed out of the ordinary. He had no way of knowing if magic was involved and so he had to be careful. The man yawned, and suddenly he rushed towards the vantha without warning.

Eri was critically observing his opponent, and upon the slightest twitch he was ready, quickly drawing both blades and leaping backwards to avoid his legs undergoing involuntary amputation by scythe.

He dashed diagonally to the left away from the direction of which the scythe swung to try to catch the gladiator by his side, thrusting his right sword at the man due to it being closest in proximity. It was a light thrust that required little commitment and so was more of a testing jab rather than a real attempt to hurt. He kept this left hand relaxed, ready to move his off-hand blade to guard his body should the man somehow be able to have the strength needed to swing the huge weapon back to hit him.

He doubted it, but he had no intention of finding out the bad way.

[Almech]

Almech smiled good answer were his thoughts his hood had already flung back resting loosely between his shoulder blades, and he took a diagonal route to try and flank him, he smiled. Using the end of his polearm he parried the blade, and knocked it away, this angered Almech, this man was not fighting him seriously and Almech was giving his all, he found this man to be rude in his actions. As if saying that Almech wasn't good enough to go all out on, his scythe swung again, from it's previously low position, he aimed to slice upwards at the man's chest. However with the way he swung his scythe it wouldn't do much cutting, it anything the point would catch at his skin, tearing at his flesh rather than cutting it, and would skip across the body randomly picking and letting go.

He liked his scythe very much for this quality, it had several methods of attack, blunt slicing and piercing and ripping, had it been a normal scythe slicing would have been replaced with severring and ripping would have been out of the question, Almech didn't find that fun at all. Once the weapn was swung to it's peak height Almech would pivot the shaft and bring it down again using the same ripping attack method this time with gravity at his aid would have been a much quicker and powerful attack. He wouldn't stop there either, he'd half spin his scythe after that, so the blunt end was aimed at Eri, aiming a strong jab at his chest.

[Eridanus]

His opponent seemed to have a change in mood, from one that had an almost lazy smile on it to one that suggested anger, as if something that the vantha did had rubbed off the wrong way. Eri was not interested in the mood swings of his opponent, though he filed this away for future reference in case it would have any benefit to him. Now, he had to focus on this battle. He also noticed that the man swung the huge weapon quite inefficiently, and though this might be because of his possible inexperience with the weapon, it could also be acting to lull him into a false sense of security. He would not fall into this trap.

The gladiator aimed his slice diagonally upwards in order to cleave Eri's midsection, and it was quite fortunate that he did not use commitment in his previous thrust for this allowed him to thrust that same blade into the ground slightly in front of his body, using that line of steel to deny the scythe from entering his body.

As he gripped his blade, feeling the force of metal against metal, he continued manoeuvring to the left (to the man's right), unsheathing his sword from the ground as he did so. The gladiator had intended to slice the scythe downwards upon doing so, and Eri's new position made it more awkward for the man to do so as he had to change the direction of the swing which reduced quite some power of the attack.

This allowed the vantha to use his off-hand blade to swing out in a single burst motion in the opposite direction of the scythe's swing, essentially engaging in a battle of strength that he should win unless the man had some form of unnatural strength.

The aftershock should swing the man's scythe backwards, and Eri continued to strafe the man, always trying to reach a point where he could put his blade through his opponent's back. At the very least he could keep him on his toes, making sure to not fight him on the front and to always reduce his opponent's tactical advantage.

He saw an opportunity granted by his parry and he lunged forward again with his main sword, attempting to use the man's torso as a fleshy sheath for his weapon, but as he did so the gladiator spun the scythe towards him, causing him to halt his lunge. Even if he managed to make contact with his blade it would be a half-hearted one where superficial damage would be sustained.

Self-preservation was more important after all, and as he halted his lunge he swung his off-hand blade in the opposite direction of the scythe again to smash it away from his body and to allow himself some breathing room.

His opponent's inexperience showed with the scythe, though he had some unorthodox methods of fighting. Using the space afforded to him by his parry, Eri quickly stepped back to make some space between the two of them. He did not believe in blind swinging of weapons, and instead believed in numerous but short engagements for the longer an engagement dragged the more unpredictable moves became.

Eyes on the gladiator. He would watch his next move carefully.

[Almech]

Almech's scythe rococheted off Eri's grounded sword, this guy was smart, he was a thinker, unlike Almech whose fighting style was comprised almost entirely of instinct. This was advantageous in itself, how could an opponent predict his moves if he didn't even know what his next move would be? his opponent moved out of postion, so Almech adjusted his trajectory. This lessened the efficiency of his strike their blades met, and for a moment, they were an even match until Eri's sword slid up catching the grooves in the blade of his scythe, effectivley pushing his weapon backward. The man continually tried to catch his blind spot, Almech was aware of this strategy, he'd seen his father use it many times on hunting trips Almech's next strike came and was quickly deflected.

Almech loosened his grip, letting go of his scythe and allowing it to fly out several feet before hitting the ground, Almech's eyes were cold, animalistic, with a lust for blood, Almech took a step towards Eri, allowing him no room to swing or stab at him. He reached to grab his opponent's dominant hand, he would dig his claws in and torque the man's wrist causing him to drop the weapon in his favored hand, this man was obviously more skilled with a blade than he was himself. What better way to even the oodds than to injure his dominant fighting instrument. All the while Almech did this his opposite arm sent an elbow for Eri's chin, unknown to Eri at the moment, Almech's arms and legs were completely armored and he was about to send a whole lot of bronze into Eri's money maker.

[Eridanus]

His last parry caused an even greater impact than he expected when the scythe flew cleanly out of his opponent's hand, soaring off behind and clanging noisily on the ground. He was quite aware that the force he used was clearly not enough to disarm the man in such a manner, which only meant that his opponent had released his weapon on purpose. Why he would do so against an armed opponent was up to anyone's guess.

As the vantha retreated the gladiator continued to rush forward, denying Eri the chance of creating some space and he seemed to grab for Eri's arm. His armed attacks were as uncommitted as it was to allow him space to defend against a weapon, but at an attack in such close proximity he would have no room to manoeuvre. He had used this method several times before (like on Zenai during a sparring session) and it was ironic that now it was being used on him.

Fortunately he had the benefit of actual combat experience and as the man reached forward Eri he continued backing away, lowering his blade slightly and withdrawing the hand holding his main blade towards his body. This would cause the man to grab for the steel - and sharp - end of the blade instead of his hand. If he continued to do so Eri would jerk the blade, creating serious cuts in the man's hand.

The vantha continued backing away, suddenly vaulting diagonally away from the kelvic to prevent him from advancing. As he did so he raised both blades in a stance that indicated he was ready to resume engagement, snarling, "Pick up your weapon, gladiator!"

[Almech]

Almech's grab for Eri's hand failed and instead recieved a hand full of sharp steel, he had quickly pulled the blade downward slicing open the palm of Almech's hand, it didn't phase him. Compared to flesh being ripped from his back and chest this kind of wound was child's play, Eri jumped back and did something odd, giving him a chance to pick up his weapon? Who the hell was this guy? This was not a gentleman's spar, this was a coloseum battle, the very thought of fair play was an insane notion in a place where you made your living causing harm to others for people's entertainment where your popularity was based on how much you could make your opponents bleed. He glared at Eridanus still in disbelief, hesitant, this could be a trick to get him to turn his back, seemed like this guy had been trying to get behind him this whole time.

He backed up, he would not face away from his opponent, if it was one thing he learned in his life it was trust no one, finally he caught his scythe in his peripheral vision, he bent down and picked it up. It's shaft soon riddled with thin streams of blood he growled and curled his lip at Eridanus, his fangs plainly visible and that's when he made his move, he dashed at Eri again with a vengaence. His method of attack changed, he used the length of his weapon to his advantage stabbing at Eri now not caring that he knew his scythe had a reversed blade, he would jab the scythe and make an ever so slight slashing motion and repeat, and he sent a barrage of attacks this way.

[Eridanus]

The arena regular seemed to stare at Eri with a sense of disbelief as he considered his options, and Eri gestured slightly with his blades, pointing the man back to his weapon. He was not interested in a fast and brutal slaughter, and there was no motivation for him to do so for he bore his opponent no ill-will, and he did not view this man as an obstacle. Instead, he wanted to challenge himself, to continue practicing and honing his battle experience, and he knew that if the man continued to fight against him unarmed his blades would make short work of his opponent. Shale did not require fatalities to end a match, and Eri would be careful not to cause one.

His opponent backed up, still wary of Eri stabbing him in the back and he picked up his scythe. Eri noticed a slight trickle of red down the shaft and realized that he had indeed cut the man's palm. Either he was foolhardy and insisted on continuing with his unarmed attack earlier, or his reflexes was not fast enough to adapt to Eri's subtle shift.

The gladiator dashed at Eri, growling as he jabbed his scythe. The entire length of a scythe was way longer than the entire length of a long sword, and Eri estimated the full length of his blade to be only two-thirds the full length of a scythe. This meant that trying to close the distance from the front would be suicide.

He would have to think on the fly and watch for openings, and so he continued to keep his distance, using the tip of his blades to parry the jabs of the scythe as he moved forward should the man retreat, and retreat when the man advanced. He fully utilized the advantage of open spaces which allowed plenty of room for maneuvering, deflecting a jab here, simply leaping back to avoid a slash there, always out for an opening, out for a weakness, out for a window of opportunity where he could close the distance between them without allowing the gladiator's advantage in weapon length.

[Almech]

Almech was sweating profusley now, so much for that nap he wanted to take, he felt as if this man was making a fool of him, which made him try that much harder, his attacks became more ferocious. This man just kept deflecting and dodging, deflecting and dodging it was becoming tedious then an idea hit him, it wasn't a good one, but it was a plan at the very least, he flicked his scythe. He caught the ground the the blunt end of his polearm and flung dirt directly at Eri's face, whether it got in his eyes or not did not matter, it was a distraction. He took a few steps forward and used his scythe to pole vault over Eri and land behind him, he slashed at his opponent's back and in the same motion slashed again, but this time his intent was to hook Eri's ankles again, if succesfull he would try and beat this man into submission, whacking him with the blunt end of his polearm.

He had to draw blood, he had to, he needed to, if he didn't draw blood it would make him an inadequate warrior, it would bring him great shame, to be beaten by someone without so much as laying a hand on him. He only had one trick left in his arsenal, but he had to save it as a last resort, if he played his whole hand now he was done for, it was obvious by now that this man was much more skilled than he. Almech still had surprise on his side though, it was his dealbreaker alot of the time, how could he be so weak? he trained hard everyday, and he was only winning matches by a hair. Now this man shows up, and treats him as if he were a toy? allowing him to grab his weapon? He'd sworn to himself he'd never be a second rate being again, Almech was beginning to panic, he wanted to end this quickly.