[Flashback] With all the Force of a Great Typhoon (Solo)

by **Talya** on July 2nd, 2015, 10:33 pm

Fall 32, 512 AV

Once again, Talya appeared in the clearing that she and Martin's image had chosen a few days before. Today, the sky was clear, devoid of clouds, although the sun hung in the western sky. The leaves on the trees rustled in a light wind. Others, dead and brown, rolled across the ground; strumming the grass. The air felt crisp and cool; you could tell that it belonged to the autumnal season, and yet, it seemed heavier than Tal remembered. Heavier than it should, and she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it would rain soon, or something. Today too, unlike yesterday, Talya had arrived in the clearing second. She found Martin's image sitting with his back against an old oak, tossing his dagger lazily back and forth from hand to hand. Her eyes followed its path for a few moments as she moved inward from his side, before her eyes rose to meet his own. "I hope I haven't kept you waiting long," she commented, although she wasn't sure this was entirely true.

Martin's image shook his head. "Not long at all," he paused. "Shall we begin?"

Talya nodded as her hand hovered the hilt of her concealed blade, and then slipped past the cotton folds, the long slit that ran up the side of her dress. Her fingers pressed lightly against skin, against something cold, wire. The edges inched farther, she was still searching. But this lasted but a moment, a breath, before her fingers had wrapped around the blade in its entirety. She clenched tightly on the hilt, etching thin lines from its make into her palm as she extracted it, bringing the blade into the open, before forcing it down by her side. Today, as reluctantly agreed, she did it his way. Today, she fought with the point of her weapon directed outward, away from her, and toward her opponent. With a wary smile, she slipped into a slightly modified starting position. She let her right foot slide forward, until it was about eighteen inches ahead of the left. The left twisted to the left side of her body so they formed a ninety degree angle. Her body rotated at the waist, so she presented only her side as the target. Her left hand remained at her side, and her right hand hovered just below her shoulder, to the side of her body. The arm cocked and ready to move into an attack.

"Ready when you are," she called, when she had settled most of her weight onto her left foot.

"Good," the image replied, although he disappeared as he came forward, as a yukman had appeared. It looked roughly human, with a lot of soil and bits of grass sticking out of its cracked skin. It ran for her, and swept its arm, across to Talya's shoulder. A strike that she blocked easily enough by lifting her blade, and knocking the yukman's uselessly aside, before moving forward, into a lunge, extending her right hand into the opening to stab at her opponent. This, he easily deflected by moving a pace back, and batting her weapon aside as she pulled her body back into its previous, starting position.

by **Talya** on July 2nd, 2015, 10:33 pm

The yukman seemed to take the time to survey her for a moment, so Talya decided to take the time to cheat, in some ways, by adding another of her disciplines into the mix. She felt her djed stir within her, filling her with a strange tingling sensation, which she pushed into the tips of her fingers with the aid of her mind. But only those of her bare, left hand. It was at this moment that the yukman attacked her again, with an attempted strike to her right hip, which she avoided by backing out of the way. She then began to push her djed out of the tips of her fingers, and into the air directly above her palm, forming res. She let it pool into a roughly spherical shape above her palm as she knocked another attempted strike away. She then stepped forward as her heart began to beat a little faster, and a few beads of sweat began to pool upon her brow. As she swung her blade upward, and was knocked away, she began to fill the res sphere with air, while concentrating heavily on leaving the outer portion of the orb empty.

Talya took a deep breath, in her nose and out through her mouth. As she shot forward, again, and swung at the yukman's right arm, she let the airy orb slide off her hand and toward her opponent. She imagined it hitting him squarely in the chest, and she supposed it did strike the image, a few moments later, although it didn't seem to do anything. She wasn't entirely surprised, as she hadn't given it much force, and decided to give it one more try, before she tired to much, and could depend only on her martial skills to get her to win the fight.

So, Talya deflected another offensive move with a step back, and a slap of her blade, as she let more res pool above the palm of her left hand. When it had gathered, Talya shot forward. She swept her right arm out to the side of her body, and then pushed it back in as far as it would go, so that it could slash against the yukman's neck. This he deflected, as she urged her body forward again, and began to fill her res orb with air in the same fashion as before. In another fluid motion, in the same moment this was happening, Talya moved her arm back through the space she had just taken, and was deflected again as she retreated a few steps, and the orb finished filling up. It felt unstable to her, or at least, she had a strange sense that it was, and she supposed this stemmed from it being a gaseous substance, but she wasn't sure. All the same, she knew she had to use it up soon in an attack, or it would dispel and go to waste.

Talya darted forward. As she did so, she pulled her right arm back, so that it was bent at the elbow, and tucked against the right side of her body. When she came within striking distance, she thrust it forward, in an attempt to jab at the monster. She then disguised the toss of her airy orb by pushing her left hand forward, palm facing out toward the image, as a natural, follow-up type slap to her previous move, as she then retracted everything, pulling her limbs back into her side momentarily as she let her djed rest, and a wave of exhaustion passed over her, causing her to nearly stumble as she twirled around the image until she reached his back.

by **Talya** on July 2nd, 2015, 10:34 pm

Talya was dismayed, before she grew tired and dizzy, it didn't seem as though her second reimancy attack had done much of anything, and it didn't seem as though the yukman had noticed as much about her stumbling, for he didn't screech or shriek or do anything about it. Or if he did, he simply thought her clumsy, or didn't care. Either way, the spar progressed with the monster turning to meet the Ethaefal head on. He struck out at her, and she raised her blade to meet his arm. The rock encrusted fingers struck awkwardly against the body of her blade, causing the progression of his arm to slow as it followed the length of her weapon a moment, before he stopped, perhaps realizing he had entered a sort of danger zone, and retracted.

Each of the fighters took a few steps back, distancing themselves from the other. Talya's chest rose and fell swiftly, just as the yukman's was, and she knew the battle would grow more intense as both tried to emerge as the clear winner, before it slowed as they exhausted themselves completely, at which point, the fight was likely to stop. With this in mind, Talya darted forward again, and as she came closer to her target, began to descend. Lowering her body slightly into her run as she swept her blade down to her side, and then cut it back up- across the monster's body from his hip to his shoulder, pulling apart some of his "dirtied skin", before she danced away. But Talya refused to relent, she pressed him.

Talya shifted, she led with her left side now, shielding the right with its presence. Her dagger held behind her as she neared, and seeing this opening, as an invitation, the monster made to cut across her. Rapidly, she swept her blade in, and knocked his arm aside, before darting into the opening, and pressing her blade onward. Slapping the yukmen's chest with the flat of hers, before he followed up by slamming his fist into her left shoulder, just before she managed to dance away from him again, and then dive forward, spinning around his body. As she did so, she held her right arm out, so that when she rounded to his back, she could stab him there.

The yukman just stepped forward, away from her, alluding the strike as well. He then turned to face her, and swept his arm wildly around from left to right. Right to left, and then up and down, diagonally and across, forcing Talya to step back at times to avoid the attempted strikes, and to raise her dagger at other times to block them. First to the right, while she tilted her wrist to extend the weapon horizontally, to bar more space. Then the left, another attempt at the left. Down. Up. By the hip. More toward the right waist, in an endless dance of fury attacks, which somehow, Talya always seemed to narrowly miss.

Talya quickly grew bored of this. Her arm a tad wary, and she decided to break the monotony by coming up beneath the yukman's arm with her dagger, to knock it farther away than she could if she merely blocked it with the weapon. She then attempted an undercut with her arm, that led the blade toward the yukman's chin. The yukman stepped back again. They seemed evenly matched now.

Like they were back at square one.

by **Talya** on July 2nd, 2015, 10:34 pm

Talya tried another approach. Now that her opponent was weary, and beginning to hunch, she felt as though she could try a new line of attacks. So, she darted forward, and raised her right arm high over her head as she ran. When she came within striking distance of her opponent, she brought the weapon back down in a sort of "ice pick" attack. A hack and slash designed to finish an opponent. She swept the blade at the yukman's back. Then back up, and back down, ramming the flat of her blade into him. The yukman only blocked a few, before ramming the flat portion of his arm into her exposed right leg. Soon, getting the picture, Talya skipped away, and the pair squared off once more.

Talya's chest was rising and falling swiftly, her heart drumming rapidly in her chest, as she huffed. Drawing in breath through her aching throat, into her lungs. She crept forward again, and slashed inward, across the yukman's chest a few inches, before he managed to block her, and snap his arm out at her middle. Talya stepped back half a pace, and blocked this by raising her blade a little to meet it. The arm and the dagger clashed together, and then drew back, before being thrust forward again, into the same spot. The extensions clashed again, before they were pulled away, and Talya danced around her opponent, smacking the back of his left arm with the flat of her blade again, before circling to the other side, and doing the same with his opposing arm.

The yukman cried.

The yukman to turn to face Talya, but she was to fast. She had already returned to her starting position, and slammed her blade into his chest. He knocked her weapon away a moment later, once he had regained his footing, and then, the yukman cut through the opening and whacked Talya in the chest with his arm, but it seemed half-hearted as the yukman was already crumbling, dying from the blow. Talya staggered a few steps back, as air was knocked from her lungs. She choked for breath momentarily, as the yukman tried to surge forward with the last of its strength, but instead, collapsed onto the ground in a heap.

Tal knew they would bruise come morning as she took a step back, and then lifted her dagger to block an attempted blow to her head, from the image of Martin that had now reappeared with the beast's death. Lowering it swiftly after to bar his progression to her heart.

Then, although she was rather tired, Talya darted forward. She pulled her right arm back as she did so, then punched out with it at the last moment, in an attempt to stab the image of Martin in the heart. The image deflected with a step back and breathed heavily. "You are very tired after your fight," she imagined that the image had rasped, "so that is enough for today."

Tal nodded and sheathed her weapon as she straightened herself out. The image did the same.

"See you tomorrow," she said, as they both went their separate ways, and the image faded into nothingness once more.