Solo [Antinous Training Grounds] Picking A Fight.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

19th of Winter, 514.

Yet another unfortunately failed spar. Narick backed away a few steps to try and clear some distance between the two of them, but the squirrel hopped ahead several paces to keep the combat as close as possible. No matter how many times he slashed clumsily with the short-sword, it always missed it's mark and the squirrel even had the time between them to lift the clunky Py-Pole from his side to deflect a blow or two, slapping the flat of the blade with the amber shaft to throw it off-balance before it sliced the little squirrel in two. He may have done well with a bow, but when it came to extreme close-combat with a squirrel, the boy was utterly hopeless and soon surrendered several more steps to clear enough room so that he could sheath the blunt training sword and replace it with a dagger. "Bad move." For all the swiping he did, it always seemed just out of reach, and the pole grew an even larger advantage in its length.

A few chimes later and Narick had to surrender - the squirrel just kept whacking him around the arms and legs with the pole every time he tried to swipe for the nimble little clay rodent. Though his limbs were padded underneath the light leather armor studded with metal, it was still pretty hopeless. "Good try, I guess.." he muttered after finally resheathing the weapons and stretching a little. The squirrel could only really nod in agreement.. it was a good try, after all. Could have been better. That was always the case, though.. there was always a delay; a little fumble. Ser Iros stood off to the side but didn't bother to step forwards.. after all their time together, the Akalak knew that there just wasn't any point trying to catch the squirrel.

"Suppose I'd better find another fighter for you, hmm? You'll be needing the extra training." The Akalak spoke from the side and Narick backed off to a different section of the Training Grounds. Before Iros could turn as well, Arch stopped him with a raised paw and a quiet sigh.

"What's the point, huh? Not like anyone else here is going to be able to do much." He shrugged his shoulders casually, but Iros only frowned. "We've done this a thousand times already. People attack, they miss, I hit them. What's the point even bothering with these people any more? They all do the same shyke, over and over again." Though he didn't mention it, the same could even be said of the Akalak. All the man seemed to do was stab away with his spear and hope to hit his mark. He never did. His Evantia helped, though. Even with the ability to predict where the squirrel was going to end up, he couldn't always slam the tip home before the squirrel had moved yet again.

"You need to remember that not everyone here is as small and agile as you. That doesn't make them poor fighters, though." The squirrel could see what Iros was saying, but it didn't matter, really. There was still one big, glaring fact staring them straight in the eye.

"Good or not, they still can't beat me when it comes down to a fight." It wasn't even boasting. It was a fact! Though even as he said those words, he could hear footsteps approaching from behind and a shadow drawing over his little body. He turned, expecting to see a new challenger.. and instead, all he got was a dirty girl standing with her hips cocked and a little smile on her lips.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

"So, that's what you think, huh? Nobody can take on the little squirrel?" She had such a mocking tone in her voice that the squirrel actually puffed his chest up a fraction when he turned back to the girl. She didn't look like much.. maybe a few years older than some of the squires, and with a shield and spear in her hands. Daggers attached regularly around her waist. Almost like a less-muscular version of Iros. Is she serious? Surely she wasn't, but with the confidence she took in her stride, it definitely seemed like she wanted to take the squirrel on.. even though her defeat would be pretty damn certain. "Obviously you've never had a fight with me, have you. Come on then. Let's see what you've got." The shield and spear were both raised at once, taking a defensive stance, which left the squirrel looking a little bit perplexed.

"Uhm, alright then." He raised the Py-Pole in return and ventured a quick glance to Iros as well. The man had backed off even farther than before to give them adequate room. Pssh, baby. He turned back around.. just in time for the blunt tip of the spear to jab right into his chest and throw him onto his back. The pole flew out of his paws and landed several more steps away, out of reach, as the girl walked up casually and stabbed the butt of the spear back down into the dirt.

"You should always keep your eyes on your opponent. Distraction is the first step to defeat." Now that was just dirty. Admittedly, the squirrel was guilty to a few cheap shots himself.. aiming for the crotch or the throat, both of which were pretty much instant game-enders for the few people he'd been forced to use such moves on. However, he'd never gone for such things when the opponent wasn't even looking! That was the equivalent of stabbing someone in the back and then blaming it all on the victim instead. His squishy teeth grated against each-other as he rose again, dusting himself off and chewing down a vicious retort. She even had the damn grace to smile at the sight of his body now covered in dust.

"Fine. You want to play it that way? You got it." He didn't even bother to go back and take up his pole again.. it'd just weigh him down. Instead, the squirrel ducked down onto all-fours and abruptly bolted straight for one of the girl's legs. Let her get a taste of her own medicine.. and indeed, she almost did. She took a step back and used her longer legs to increase the stride so that he wouldn't be able to catch up, so he did what he always did and swung his tail around in a whip-like motion to wheel his body around and aim straight for the other foot.. which also went back and out of the way just before he could make impact. That wasn't reflex, either.. she knew that he'd try to go for the opposite foot.

Alright.. so she's not a normal opponent. Then again, it could have been little more than chance. Perhaps she had something that he didn't know about.. a gnosis, some kind of magic? He couldn't be sure yet. All he could do was take a step back and brace himself. A good job, too, because the girl wasted no time in suddenly jerking her spear forwards in a strike that looked more like the head of a snake whipping down for a small mouse instead of a spear. His eyes widened and he nearly forgot to get out of the way - by the time he'd pulled himself together, a quick-thinking leap still left the spear clipping one of his legs and shooting a bolt of pain right through his nexus. It wasn't enough to throw him off, but enough to definitely feel it - air sucked between his teeth as he stumbled a few steps to the side and then braced again.

Alright then. Definitely not a normal opponent.The more he watched her, the more he realized that she was so much more skilled than Iros ever was. Though she lacked the same reflexes, she was so much more agile with the long pole in her hand. The way she walked, the way she attacked.. all of it exuded a competence far above anything else that the other knights could hold. Who did I just pick a fight with. One way or another, he couldn't just back out now. All she had was a damn spear and shield, after all. It didn't matter how good she was with it.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The only problem was that whatever she had, it was beyond just the spear and the shield. Though she was so much better with both than Ser Iros ever was. Instead of just stabbing repeatedly into the ground, she mixed it up accordingly with a plethora of strange tactics.. everything from abruptly switching the way she handled the spear to the different attacks she made, coming from different directions. One minute she held the spear underhand, the next it stood overhand. She stabbed, she waved it left and right, slammed it length-ways down into the ground. The girl did absolutely everything in her power to make sure to keep the squirrel moving, and it worked. He barely had any time to really come up with any method of offense.

Every time he tried to get closer, she backed off easily and made a few quick jabs with the spear while his attention split elsewhere. Every time he tried to back away and get some space to think up something, she extended her grip to make every use of its range while she moved up closer. Though the squirrel had finally struck a decent balance so that he wasn't being hit, it was a precarious place to be.. every jump and roll and slide was only an inch away from attack. Every tick he spent trying to work with her and adjust to the setting, she became that little bit faster and better in predicting his moves and preparing for them with another quick slash. This can't go on. It was only a matter of time before he'd have no chance to get out of this horrid predicament.

"Still thinking you're hot stuff, huh?" She asked rhetorically with another sharp jab straight for the Pycon's side. Fast, but far too easy to slip to the side of. There's just enough time. After evading, he launched himself forwards and stuck the metal tip down into the ground hard, digging into place and stretching out the tension in the Py-Pole until it finally reached tipping point and catapulted the little squirrel into the air; straight for the girl. Aim for the stomach, or the chest. Possibly somewhere between the two. Keep up the offensive, don't lose sight of the moment. No mercy. Even if he struck the shield, it wasn't one of the larger ones like those of Ser Iros, and neither did the girl look like she had enough muscle on her to be able to take the weight crashing down on her.

Instead, she nimbly raised the shield high and twisted it around to the side, parrying the entire squirrel and deflecting his body off the side of her shield to land in the dirt several feet to her side. Now she stood between him and his own weapon, left stuck in the ground and pointing straight for the sky. "Well, shyke." Annoyingly, his opponent seemed pretty pleased with this arrangement. Even though he'd barely been given any time to actually use the pole, removing it just left him with even less range to his futile attacks. He needed to fetch it again.

That was when he found something brilliant.

The girl had done well in stopping the squirrel from pulling together a plan through her constant attacks, but every time he came in for an attack at the ground, she'd been forced to back off. Her spear was pretty useless when it came to actually attacking the squirrel, no matter how the swung it and tried to catch him off-guard.. sure, she came close to it pretty damn often and switched up the attacks faster than anything he'd ever seen before, but she still couldn't land a decent hit. The shield was small, and was made to block swords and maces and other weapons held at a human size, and a human height. Not tiny squirrels around the ankles.

Whenever he pushed forwards, even when without weapons, she had to back off. When he began pushing forwards to fetch his weapon, in the hopes of slipping between her legs to pick it up, he found that he simply couldn't.. not because she was able to actually stop him in the advance, but because she kept backing off and slipping aside to try and avoid the little squirrel from gaining a game-ending advantage. Oh... oh, this could be fun after all. In under a chime, he'd retrieved his Py-Pole and almost completely formulated his attack plan.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

I've got this. He actually did as well; he had a weapon, he had a way to keep up the offensive push.. nipping at her ankles the way a small dog would herd a sheep right up towards the pen. They'd pushed out beyond their original arena by now, up near one of the obstacles.. and just as they reared up its side, he made for another jab at her feet but intentionally fell a little short to dig the tip of the pole deep into the ground. She didn't catch on until the midsection of the weapon arced up, tension building along its entire length.. and eventually releasing as the Pycon catapulted himself into the air. She ducked off to the side; it was almost too easy to stop the little clay creature from getting anywhere near her.. but he wasn't even aiming for her.

Why even try if he could finally gain some ground on the huge boulders etched into the arena?

His claws struggled to dig deep into the unforgiving stone and find purchase; there wasn't a lot of time and if he messed up the second jump, he'd be leaving himself open once he made it back down to the ground. Come on. The clay in his toes stretched and flattened against the surface of the boulder, digging into the tiniest of crevices until he was forced to take a leap of faith and hope that what he'd done would be enough to hold while he finally released the pole, only to loop his tail around it and forcefully drag it out of the sandy ground. He'd need that.

"C'mon.. c'mon!" She was already approaching again, ready to swipe the spear around and knock him straight off.. foiling everything he'd struggled so hard already for. All he had was a very narrow view when he turned his head and pressed his cheek against the cold stone.. peripheral vision. Shyke. Not enough. Heck, another few steps and she'd probably be able to reach out and just pluck him off the wall.. if not for the swinging Py-Pole still gripped in his tail, thrashing around and maintaining at least a bit of a gap, even though there was absolutely no coherency to his swings as he struggled his way up the flat stone.

It was much more flat than it'd looked from a distance. It's not going to work. His limbs were struggling just to keep in the same spot, already tired and aching as he heaved up another inch. Then two fingers pressed down on the tip of his tail, still looped around the pole, and he heard a soft snicker from behind. There went his plan, foolhardy as it was. "I have no clue what you were going for.." Well, that made two of them. A pot-shot in the dark. Or it was, until he realized just how freaking lucky he was.

He knew exactly where to land. First his arms pushed off the smooth wall, leaving his legs a little room to release their grip and step up once or twice to build up momentum.. before pushing off as well, sending the squirrel into a flip that used his gripped tail for guidance. An almost-completely blind leap that landed right back down on the back of the girl's hand. He'd made it. He had absolutely not a damn clue how... but it was all over.

And it was; he just had no clue who for. Stunned by his own luck and genius, he failed to react in time before his body was partially crushed between the same wall he'd just leaped off and the back of the hand he'd just leaped on in an absolutely vicious backhand. On the bright side, it released his pole.. so when he inevitably slid down the length of the boulder and dropped down to the ground, thankfully not disfiguring any more than it already had.. which was surprisingly little, since there wasn't that much force thrown into the swipe. Apparently just more of a reflex action than anything malicious.

"Ow." Well, he'd lost it all now, hadn't he.. the perfect opportunity to reach her head and end the entire match then and there, he'd completely messed up and lost. Even then, he could feel the tip of the spear nudging against his chest and by the time his nexus had stopped spinning and both eyes had reconnected, he could see her crouching down with wide eyes staring intently down over his face, washing hot breaths of air on his prone body. "I still don't know what you were going for there."

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

"Yeah, well maybe you just weren't smart enough to anticipate my moves?" A tap of the spear-tip against his chest silenced the smart-alec that hid within. Perhaps there was still some miracle way to escape. Sure, he could risk himself a little more.. he could afford to screw up at least one more time, if given the opportunity. He was sure the girl was getting as tired as the Pycon; sweat was beading over her forehead and dripping off the tip of her nose, creating spots of moisture on the sand not too far from the Pycon's own head; she was definitely panting in that thick platemail. Surely he could manage one more offensive, a final push to knock her down and keep her there. Admittedly this had to be the seventh or eighth time he'd said that but this time he was absolutely certain that one more decent strike could end it all, here and now.

"Honestly, it feels like you're all over the place with this, jumping left and right and just.. not being coherent enough, you know? Especially with this." Just like that, she kneeled down and plucked the Py-Pole out of his waiting paws. So much for a final offensive to end it all. She handled it crudely but barely a few chimes of observation and she dropped it back onto his chest. "You could have easily used that thing to get a decent hit, like, somewhere around my knees and knocked me over."

He wasn't sure whether he was gawking at her or himself but the Pycon's mouth fell wide open. Why didn't I think of that. He had her backing off with his offensive.. a good unsuspecting strike right onto one foot would have been simple, effective.. he wouldn't have to rush around struggling on the side of a rock, completely vulnerable, during the middle of a spar, attempting something utterly crazy and surely useless. He could have won. He could have won. It wasn't just a matter of hindsight thinking that if he moved a little faster or hit a little stronger or trained himself more earlier on in the previous days of training - he had the skill, he had the opportunity, he had the potential... and he'd petched it all up.

How many times had this already happened? How many times had he struggled to try and keep up, to make a decent move.. and then discovered later on, thinking back and going over the fight in his mind, that he could have done something just a little different and suddenly upset the entire match? More times than he could count.. though most of the time he simply had to accept that there was nothing that could be done now.. or that there was no point trying to guess what could have happened, since there was no full-proof way of knowing the outcome if he didn't try it in the first place. This wasn't like that.. he definitively knew the outcome and he knew he could have done it! Petch him!

"Y'know, I think you need to try and stop trying to be so complicated." He wasn't that bad, was he? Alright, so most of the time, things just went awry and strange a good ten chimes in - that wasn't his fault, was it? "Make it difficult and unexpected and it throws other people off.. but it can do just the same thing for you." Admittedly true. "Next time, why don't you just try and keep it simple?" He was about to answer but she'd already stood up and turned her heel, apparently done giving whatever advice she had to give and leaving the Pycon in a rather stunned silence.. unsure whether to kick himself or just accept the advice and move on.

After the girl had replaced her spear back on the racks and disappeared from sight around the corners of the corridors.. the squirrel kicked himself. Literally.

[Katelyn Marks]

Due Rewards

“After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

― Philip Pullman

 

Archailist

Skills
➢ Py-Pole +2
➢ Pyken +1
➢ Tactics +5
➢ Planning +2
➢ Running +2
➢ Climbing +1

Lores
➢ Tactics: Distraction Equals Defeat
➢ Tactics: Eyes on the Target
➢ Tactics: Keep Things Simple

Shield Points: +5 training

Comments: It was refreshing to see Arch run into a bit of trouble! I'm glad you gave him an opponent that tested him. It's too bad you're so high in so many skills, else I would have been able to give you more. Luckily this was a very tactical thread, and I was able to award you full points there. Also, I didn't give you a shield point for Ser Iros being in this thread because he had such an insignificant role.

If you have any concerns or questions about your rewards please feel free to send me a message. Also, please edit your original grade request and mark it as graded. Thank you and enjoy!