Solo Whip It, Whip It Real Good

[Raven Nightfoot]

34th of Summer, 513 A.V It was a rather hot summers day on the road, Syna was shining bright and unhindered in the sky as there were no clouds in sight. Raven still couldn't believe that she had not seen a single person, on horse, caravan or foot that was heading in the same direction as she was. She feared she might actually have to WALK the full distance from Nyka to Ravok and the heat wasn't making things any easier. There was a rustling in the bushes not far behind and Raven calmly unhinged her whip from it's place at her hip taking hold of the grip and allowing it's long leather length to flop to the ground. She raised her hand above her head and began to swirl it in a circular motion. With this simple act, the whip came to life, as if it were a snake being charmed by her movements. The whip lifted off the ground and danced around Raven's form as it spun before falling to the ground in front of her, then with a simple retraction and forward slash of her arm, the whip was thrown into the air and lashed forward. In the blink of an eye the whip had shot forward and it's loud snap shot through the surrounding area, a flock of birds took to the air clearly frightened by the loud noise. After repeating the process a few more times, Raven rolled up the whip and returned it to it's usual place at her hip. The reason for this seemingly unnecessary use of the whip was because Raven had felt like she was being followed for most of the day and was using the whip in hopes that her pursuer was just a cowardly woodland creature that would flee at the sharp sound of the whip. The whip seemed to be working, sort of...in that, whenever she heard something nearby she'd crack her whip and for quite some time there would be no more noises, but after a few bells it would return and Raven would repeat the process. To say it was unsettling was a huge understatement, especially since the last time Raven had been travelling alone, she was attacked by a horde of yukmen. She had seemingly stumbled upon the group of vile unnatural abominations out of sheer bad luck, or perhaps them on her, out of good luck, she still wasn't sure. Anyway, the monstrous yukmen had wasted no time in attacking her and if not for a helpful akalak mage, she doubted she would have lived to tell the tale. "Aren..." she said to herself as she walked on. The large handsome blue warrior mage had saved both Raven's life and his own with a powerful spell, prior to passing out and being robbed by Raven. Knight in shining armour or not, she saw an opportunity and she seized it, unfortunately for her, the mage had somehow tracked her down and recovered his belongings while revealing a completely different side of himself. When they'd first met, during the yukmen attack, the akalak had been heroic and charming, but when hunting her down in Nyka's warfields he had been bloodthirsty and terrifying. She still shuddered at the memory of that day, from now on she would pick her targets more carefully.

[Raven Nightfoot]

She walked on, lost in the memory of her second encounter with the akalak, she had gone through it many times, over and over again she analysed it and she still couldn't figure out how he had found her so easily. Eventually she had given up on finding an answer and settled with the most likely one, he was a mage, he had used his magic to track her, it must have been possible for them to do that, right?(Actually it was because she had stolen his Lakan) "Okay enough about Aren..." she said to herself, shrugging it off, after all it was past now and besides, she had bigger problems at hand...possibly. "Calm down, it's probably just your mind playing tricks on you, you know...paranoia from the yukman attack." she reasoned although still not completely convinced. A while later it came again, rustling coming from the darkness of the surrounding forest...and once again Raven unhinged her whip and cracked it a few times in the direction the noise had come from. The method seemed to be working, even if it was only delaying the inevitable, she saw three possible outcomes to the situation: 1) Whatever it was would give up it's pursuit of her and flee/leave. 2)She would keep whatever it was at bay for long enough to reach the safety of Ravok. OR... 3)Whatever it was would show itself, be it for better or worse(on her behalf) Either way, it seemed the whip method was her best bet. Ah yes her 'trusty' whip... Raven thought back to the day she had chosen it as her weapon of choice, her lips turned to a smirk as she remembered her parents' reaction to her choice. They had been forcing her to take up some sort of weapon training, "Girl or not, you should be capable of defending yourself." she said, mocking her father's voice. They had always been so pushy when it came to combat, probably because they assumed she would follow in their 'knightly footsteps', but she had no interest in that path. Anyway, after watching some knights at the training ground she had finally decided on the whip, her parents were shocked since whips were typically used for animals and not combat but Raven had made her decision. She had chosen the whip because, firstly it was hardly lethal, secondly if she was disarmed and her weapon taken from her it was unlikely the person would be able to use it against her, unlike most weapons whips were not easily used without practice. Finally, she chose it because of the sound, it was loud and frightening and simply hearing it could cause a would-be attacker to think twice...and avoiding a fight was better than winning a fight as far as Raven was concerned. Come to think of it, she hadn't practised much since the season she had gotten her whip several years ago, "What a shame, I could have been a professional by now...Oh well, it's never too late right?" she joked as she searched for a practice dummy, but with only trees in sight she would have to settle for leaves. So she picked a bunch of leaves on a nearby tree focusing on one as the target. Her arm rose and lashed forward like a serpent raring up and striking and so too did the whip, although it was several feet off target. Raven furrowed her brow in disappointment, she had thought she'd have done better than that and so she tried again, with a similar result. After a few more tries yielding little improvement her shoulders dropped as she sighed in frustration. "Come on! The only way you'd hit a target is if it weighed a thousand pounds!" she moaned as if trying to encourage herself. She tried a few more times with only a slight improvement and decided to take a break, besides she still had lots of walking to do.

[Raven Nightfoot]

A half a bell later Raven decided it was time to take a proper break from travelling and took a seat in the shade of a large tree near the road. She retrieved her waterskin from her bag and had a few refreshing gulps before putting it back in her bag. Travelling is far too tiring, I need to invest in a horse." she told herself. She sat there relaxing for a few chimes, there was a gentle breeze that could only be described as 'heavenly' in contrast to the searing heat of the day. Her eyes closed as she enjoyed the peacefulness of the forest, nothing but herself and the sound of leaves rustling in the summer breeze. "Well this actually isn't so bad." she said as a feeling of serenity washed over her, but it didn't last very long. "Well well, what have we here?" Her state of relaxation was interrupted by the words, they almost seemed intrusive compared to the silence of the forest. Raven's eyes shot open as she jumped to her feet searching for the source of the sound. She didn't have to search for long as she noticed a man standing beside the trunk of a nearby tree, his look alone was very unnerving. Raven's eyes narrowed in suspicion as the man took a step closer, his clothes were ragged and strapped to his side was a battered looking sword with no sheath. "Oh I'm sorry I didn't see you there." Raven replied, trying to seem sincere, while she spoke she took a few steps back onto the road so that she was in more of an open space. She didn't like the look of this man, people with good intentions don't sneak up on travellers, besides, all her instincts were telling her to be careful. "Of course you didn't, you were too busy with your nap. So tell me, what's a pretty girl doing all alone on the road?" As he spoke, the creepy man took a step closer to Raven, he had a cruel smirk on his scruffy face, his eyes examining Raven's body, making no effort to hide it. Raven's heart dropped in fear as she realised where this was going, being a lone woman was dangerous. She grabbed the grip of her whip as the man took a second step toward her which caused him to stop his advance. "Now now honey, let's not make this difficult." 'Honey'...just hearing that word coming from his mouth made her want to throw up. Raven wasted no time, she unhinged her whip from her hip and began swirling it around herself. "Don't take another step." she said sternly although her attempt to intimidate the man clearly had no effect as the man responded by drawing his sword with a chuckle and continuing his advance. Raven stood her ground, her expression unchanging, she knew if she showed any signs of fear(which she was feeling a lot of) it would only encourage the man to continue. The man took another step and although he was still quite a distance from her, she decided it was far enough. Seemingly out of nowhere, Raven's whip shot forth striking at the air, followed by its loud crack. The suddenness of the strike caught the man off guard and he jumped back clearly frightened by the sound. Although the whip hadn't struck anywhere near the man, it still seemed to be doing a good job at keeping him at bay. After her warning strike, Raven returned the whip to it's ready stance, swirling readily around her form as she stared the man down. She was NOT just some frail and helpless damsel...

[Raven Nightfoot]

They were at a standoff, both watching the other cautiously, waiting for a move to be made. The whip still dancing around Raven's form, swirling through the air in anticipation. She knew that the man would eventually either give up or attack, either way, more time was always better than no time. The man made a move forward, the whip lashed out at him causing him to jump back once again, this happened several times. Raven waited for the man to make a move then cracked the whip, warning him not to try his luck. Although none of the attacks had hit, her eyes were still locked on him, when finally she saw the anger spark in his eyes and she knew it wouldn't be long until he charged her. Another step was taken and again Raven's whip flew forth but this time it didn't miss, it struck the creepy man in the chest and tore through his shirt and skin, leaving a small bleeding lash mark only a few inches in length. The man screamed in both pain and anger as Raven's attack landed and in his fury he went into attack mode. As he ran toward her screaming angrily, Raven retracted the whip and sent it flying toward the man once again, it barely missed him as he ducked, the whip flying over his left shoulder and just like that, he was upon her. With the man now too close for her to use her whip Raven had only her agility and hand-to-hand combat skill to rely on for self-defence. As the man approached he swung his sword horizontally aimed at Raven's head, apparently so infuriated that he no longer wanted to rape her but instead kill her. Raven had only a second to react as she ducked beneath his swing and began running past the man, gathering her whip as she did. She rolled it up quickly and re-latched it to her hip before spinning around, her legs apart and arms raised, palms open. Raven was well aware that one mistake could cost her a limb or her life, so she couldn't afford to lose focus. Once again the enraged man rushed the lithe woman this time with a series of angered diagonal slashes which Raven barely dodged by jumping from side to side as he swung. The man finished his combo with another horizontal slash, still shouting as he attacked, to which Raven responded by diving backwards and out of the blade's reach. She landed on her back with a soft grunt and immediately bent her legs, rolling over backward and back onto her feet as she regained her stance. This man had the advantage with his weapon, an advantage she couldn't allow him to keep, "Okay, if that's how you're going to play it, then I guess I should go on the offensive as well." she said to him mockingly, but before she could make her move the man rushed her once again, this time with a vertical slash which Raven side-stepped. The man's chest now only inches from her shoulder as her knee shot up, slamming into his wrist. The man's hand spasmed as he dropped his sword, in which time Raven slammed her elbow into his chest with a loud thud as it sent him stumbling back. The man seemed to be getting more furious by the second as he lunged forward, his hand outstretched, Raven reacted too slowly and his hand wrapped tightly around her neck. The man screamed as he proceeded to choke the life out of her, his second hand joining in the effort as he lifted her off the ground. Raven's struggled helplessly to pull his hands off her throat as her vision began to blur from the lack of oxygen as she gasped trying to inhale but in vain. This was not happening, she was NOT going to be killed in the middle of nowhere by some disgusting rapist, murderer, bandit. With her last struggle for survival, Raven grabbed the man's arms tightly with her hands and kicked him as hard as she could with both feet. They slammed into the man's lower abdomen with great force causing him to scream in pain and release his vice grip on Raven's throat as he stumbled backward. Raven dropped roughly to the ground on her hands and knees as she gasped for air, slowly regaining her vision as the dizzy feeling in her head dissipated, her body's thirst for oxygen now sated. Slowly and a bit unsteadily, Raven forced herself back onto her feet and regained her stance once more, just in time as the man was once again rushing her. Her amber eyes widened in surprise as she ducked barely avoiding the man's right hook as his fist flew over her head, she had her opening, this was her chance. Raven took a step forward, standing up again as she lifted her leg and kicked at the back of the man's knee, his leg gave way sending him down on one knee as Raven positioned herself behind him for her final blow. She steadied herself and then sent a powerful kick to the side of his head, her boot making contact with his skull as a loud thud resonated through the nearby area. The man let out a quick grunt as her attack landed and then fell limply to the ground, unconscious. Raven prodded his limp form with her foot, face down in the dirt and unmoving before finally sighing in relief. Her hands went to her knees as she bent over trying to catch her breath, "You nearly had me there, you piece of shyke." she said between breaths. "Well, let's see what you've got." she said again to the unconscious man as she saw an opportunity to rob him. Her hands searched him for anything of value, diving into his pockets until finally she pulled out an old dirty coinpurse, she opened it excitedly only to be let down. "Six silver mizahs? Seriously." she sighed in frustration, it was definitely not worth what she had just gone through. Then she saw it, it's dull steel catching the sun's light as it gleamed. The man's shortsword lay there on the ground not far from her, it was old and chipped and dull, of terrible quality, but at least it was some sort of consolation for her effort. Raven walked over to the weapon and picked it up. "I guess this will have to do..." she said as she examined it, "At least you won't be using it on any innocent travelers again." and with that she was off, but not before tossing the man's coinpurse on the ground in front of him, leaving him with one silver mizah and keeping five for herself. As she began walking once again, finally returning to her travels, she was lost in thought. Raven was beginning to see a trend, "I can't believe it, twice now I've traveled alone and both times I've been attacked, I REALLY need to invest in a horse.". It had been a long day of traveling, the sky was finally starting to darken as the sun began to set in the distance. "I should be in the safety of Ravok by tomorrow...well as safe as a woman with my luck can be." she joked, laughing at her own statement.

[Archailist]

Raven :

Skills:

• +2 Observation
• +3 Weapon: Whip
• +2 Intimidation
• +1 Socialization
• +1 Acrobatics
• +1 Unarmed Combat
• +1 Endurance

Lores:

• Whips: Intimidating Weapons Of Choice
• Trees Make Useful Sparring Dummies
• Whip: Warning Crack
• Whip: Tears Through Clothes
• Unarmed Combat: Striking Wrists Disarms
• Wilderness: Rapers A'Plenty
• Crooks Don't Carry Much Cash

Loot: +5SM
1 dull and well-used short sword.

Notes :

Liked it, though I felt like you used your whip well above that of a novice.

Was I a little too nuts in my grading?
If you've got concerns, just call me.