Completed Enter: The Squire! (Richard)

[Arkale]

15th Winter, 512 AV The day began like all days do for the young Knight. He woke up, prepared for his day by cleaning his sword and armor, went down to the Windmount Stables and greeted his horse, which he also provided an apple to. Giving the horse reassurance they would go riding soon, the Knight made his way to the Antinous Training Grounds. Mentally he was going over the training session he had been a part of a few days previous. The words of his tutor stuck with him, calling the last thrust Arkale attempted foolish. Still, he could not argue with the results, after all, one cannot gather fruit if one never goes out on a limb, or so the memory of his grandfather whispered to him. He made a note to not try such an attack unless it was out of desperation, but he also needed to analyze the situation and make sure nothing else was an option. "Oh, look, you're early today. That's good because the plan has changed." Arkale's tutor sounded indifferent to the Knights early arrival. "I know we were going to practice the second Ward, but something has come up and I've decided to give you a sparring partner for the day." Was it just his imagination, or did the Mage Knight pick up a hint of amusement in the other Knight's voice. The tutor Knight gave a sharp whistle and called out to a boy standing not too far off. Arkale had not noticed the boy before and didn't recgonize him either. He had to be of the order, for it was both rare and unheard of for anyone outside the Syliran Knights be found on the training ground.

[Richard Burke]

Richard's day had started rather early. Years of being on an early and concise schedual had affected his sleeping pattern. He was awake before many of the squires, and he took this time to meditate, and prepare his borrowed gear. He would walk around the quiet city, breathing the calm and chill winter air. The hoarfrost always made the city quite beautiful. Today was different though, one of the weapon masters had pulled him aside. It was a short conversation, ending in Richard agreeing to a sparring match. Richard enjoyed sparring, he could beat most squires on a good day. He worked very well his shield, a large heater. It was plain, as he never liked the flash and pomp that many knights were accustom to.

The Knight was rather vague on who his opponent would be today, but this never bothered the young squire. He donned his plate armor, and quickly followed the weapon master to the training grounds where he waited for several minutes, holding wooden replicas of his weapons. He stretched quickly, getting his blood moving in the chill morning, he wasn’t quite used to the weight of the plate, but it certainly felt less than when he started.

Richard zoned out rather quickly, as he did most of the time, but a loud whistle cut through his thoughts. He quickly walked to the weapon masters side… and peer through his helm, right at a knight. Richard bowed, and greeted the knight in the formal, “Ser”. The squire had met a few knights, but he had never sparred with one.

[Arkale]

"Arkale Benaeford, Mage Knight. A pleasure to meet you."Arkale raised an eyebrow beneath his helmet as he introduced himself to the boy. He had not been expecting to spare with a Squire. Out of respect, the Mage Knight returned the bow. At least the boy was polite, which was more than Arkale could say for a few other squires he knew. Arkale wondered idily who the boy's Patron was as he stepped forward and pulled a wooden longsword off the rack. As he hefted the practice blade over his shoulder, he eyed another of the weapons on the rack: the Greatspear. It was a weapon that interested him, and perhaps one day he would attempt to weild one, but for now, he would focus on the Longsword. He took a few paces away from both the weapons rack and the armored Squire, giving each ample room to swing their weapons a few times to get used to the weight and heft of the training devices. Arkale was always impressed how well the wooden blade was weighted to make is more real, the balance was a tad off, but hey, it was better than he could make. Silently he was trying to decide if he should take it easy on the boy, but then again he had to ask himself why the Knight trainer would throw a Squire against a Knight...maybe he was that good. If that were the case Arkale would have to be on his guard. With a deep breath, Arkale began to plan his strategy. Of course the details of the strategem he developed would ultimatly depend upon his opponent's choice of weapon and skill level, but Arkale was adaptable, which was the trademark of a good Knight. Another deep breath, just to center his focus, and Arkale was ready to spar. His longsword still slung over his shoulder, Arkale nodded to the trainer, who turned his attention to the Squire. Once the boy was ready, the fight would begin.

[Richard Burke]

Richard was not used to a knight returning a bow, and it took him off guard.
“I am Richard Burke, Son of Willian Burke, and Tiffany Sieve. The pleasure is all mine, ser.” He replied, it was over the top he knew, but he thought that most knights would appreciate that. Richard watched quietly as the knight picked a long sword, that was a pretty standard choice, but it was an effective weapon. Richard walked to the rack, and picked up an arming sword. The “blade” was just over 3 feet long, and the balance was just forward of the hilt. He strapped his heater shield to his right arm, the shield was 24 inches wide, and 24 inches tall as it slowly tapered to a rounded point. It was slightly larger than the standard shield, but this was his strong suit.

He was a little nervous under his enclosed helm, but he did his best to hide this as he stepped away from the rack and towards the clearing in the training field. He quickly surveryed the field, looking at the change in terrain, and features. He stretched his arms, adjusting to the extra weight of the shield, and sword. It felt nice, the chill winter day barely cut through his plate and gambeson, and once the fighting started, it wouldn’t take much for him to warm up.

Richard stood up straight and gave a customary salute before dropping into his stance. His right foot lead, pointing towards his foe. His left foot was a shoulders length behind, and several inches perpendicular. His shield was held above his shoulder, the face of the shield was pointing towards the knight. His sword was pointed at Arkale’s throat, with Richard’s left hand just behind his shield. He watched, and waited for the knight to strike.

[Arkale]

The Mage Knight had never seen a Squire take the defensive right off the bat, and it was most defiantly a strange technique. Arkale shifted his stance into the Ox and paused. Where was he to aim? The Squire was keeping his heart and throat behind his shield, the two major points one would aim at when using Ox. So he decided to do the only thing that made sense: break the boy's guard. Taking a large step forward, Arkale brought the point of the blade up over his head and around, swinging the blade down in an arc towards the shield with impressive speed. With any luck, the blow would break boy's guard, giving Arkale an opening to strike.

[Richard Burke]

The knight, Arkale, had better form than any squire Richard had ever faced. The squire took the few seconds it would take for the knight to prepare, to breath, and concentrate. The knight stepped forward with an obenhau, a very powerful strike. Immediately the squire knew that the knight intended to break his guard, and could see the strength in the blow. The aim of the blow was true, but the technique was the same that most others had tried, one always took most of Richards skill to counter. Instead of trying to block the blow, and absorb the entire impact- Richard took a traversing step to the left, his left foot was now forward, and his right was behind, but otherwise it was the same. Then Richard thrust his sword at Arkale’s chest, the blow would fall several inches short, but this would hopefully cause the knight to take a defensive step back- but this really only ever worked on squires.

[Arkale]

It was an effective feint to be sure, to anyone who had never seen it before. Arkale had indeed seen it before, and he also knew that the Squire's left side was completely exposed due to this technique. Arkale halted his swing and pushed the hilt of the sword down and away from his right shoulder, causing the tip of the sword to angle towards the Squire's exposed left side. With a minor adjust ment, Arkale was now in a position to thrust into the boy's left flank, just underneath his outstretched sword arm.

[Richard Burke]

Richard never thought such a feint would work against a trained knight, but now his left side was exposed, and more dangerously his sword arm. He had over stepped, and what he would do next would hurt more than blocking the previous obenhau. Arkale's thrust hit true, it felt like his arm was paralyzed from the blow. But as the pain slowly faded he regained movement. Then Richard realized that his sword had fallen from his hand, but instead of retreating, he took a gathering step into Arkale’s space. Trying to bring his shield forward and then use the momentum of the step to hit Arkale with his shield, and hopefully knock the knight down.

[Arkale]

Arkale smiled as his thrust hit, but that smile was knocked away, and so was his balance as he was suddenly introduced to the Squire's heater sheild. The noise of metal against armor was intense, and the blow carried some decent force, causing the Mage Knight to stumble backwards. Regaining his stability, though a few good strides away from the squire, Arkale brought his sword back into the Ox stan-wait. Arkale curse, apparently the shock of the shield bash caused the Knight to lose his longsword, which he quickly located was laying before him, equidistant from him as it was from his opponent. Attempting to retrieve the weapon would allow the Squire to rush him with another massive shield bash, one that would no doubt send him sprawling. Which would end the sparring with the favor in the hands of the Squire. Arkale did not like that outcome. Taking a momeny, the Knight evaluated the situation. Both combatants were disarmed, but the Squire still had a shield, and that meant an advantage. An advantage that needed to be removed. Arkale glanced around and tried to develop a strategy. Without a weapon he was in a bad spot, though he had magic on his side...no. No that was too extreme for a simple sparring match. He glanced at the Knight who was watching the match. Arkale's training session from a few days previous came to mind. He had been in a similar situation then, and he acted recklessly, causing a draw...or rather causing him to lose. For had it been real combat and the opponent was still in possession of their weapon after you had lost yours, well that usually did not end well.... Arkale needed to take this fight to a more personal level, and that meant hand to hand combat. With a sprinting start Arkale prepared himself for his assault. As he came within range of the squire the Knight halted, pivoted sideways, and brought a boot up and into the heater shield the Squire had banded to his right arm. The kick knocked the boy off balance and gave Arkale time to grab ahold of the shield and begin to force it to the ground, wrenching Richard's arm with it. It was a dire situation for the Squire, either he would have to remove the shield, or find himself pinned by it.

I took a few liberties with this turn, yes, let me know if its too much and I will edit it.

[Richard Burke]

OOCNo worries, in terms of role playing, your guy is a knight, and would be more skilled




It was a dire situation indeed. Most squires would have been knocked breathless from such a strike. And now his shield was being used for lever against him. He had never come across anything like this in all his training. He pushed against Arkale, trying to buy enough time to take the shield off. He pulled the belt off, but that would give the shield to Arkale, now that he was free, he tried to wretch the shield from the Knight's hand.