Closed [Antinous Training Grounds] The Py-Ken Master

[Numia]

Spring 34th 516

The open air soothed Numia's soul. The confining and restrictive atmosphere of the castle didn't leave the Pycon in high spirits, but it did motivate her to get out and do things in the open sunlight more often of her own volition. Around her in the morning light squires trained under the watchful gaze of the weapon masters. Numia had been instructed to meet a Pycon named Ball for training. In truth Numia had been avoiding her physical training, shying away from confrontation. Her patron saw this, and immediately knew that this habit had to be broken. The past two seasons her patron had been going easy on her while she learned to control her magic, but the Spring had shown much more success for her.

Numia walked over to a nearby stone ledge and bent her knees before jumping towards a foothold. Smacking against the stone surface roughly, she held firm to the side of the stone and shortly afterward began to climb it, shaking as she pulled herself up and found another foothold. She was getting better at climbing, too. Pulling herself over the ledge, she rolled over and then stood up, now with a clear view of the rest of the training grounds. Her eyes moved side to side, looking for her Pycon instructor. She was filled with mixed emotions about this, but she had resolved to conquer them today. Numia didn't have her fiddle with her today, and she felt naked without it. It was back in the room she shared in the squire dormitories.

[Ball]

Ball found himself staring at the little pycon as she climbed the ledge. “You look out of place young one.” The pycon shifted his body and stood as tall as he could be for three inches, “There are stairs just a few feet from your position. Instead of playing games here in the grounds I suggest using them. We aren’t as noticeable to the larger pycons as you might think. We squish quite easily under their ironclad boots.” Ball shifted his arms so they cross his torso and he looked at Numia up and down before he emitted a clucking noise. Same height, probably same weight. The way she carries herself she is clearly untrained. Ball sighed, “You must be squire Numia. I am Ball. Your patron sent you to learn how to defend yourself against others.”

Ball nodded and his face slide into a stony expression, “Show me a punch. Just throw it right at my face. Don’t worry you won’t hurt me.” He waved a hand in a come at me sort of way. It was a non-aggressive and fully unimpressed form. “I want to see what we have going on here. You don’t handle yourself like a fighter.” Ball’s right hand bunched up into a fist as he planted it underneath his elbow and waited. His legs were spread out slightly in a relaxed placement that still allowed the pyken artist to dodge or strike depending on the situation. As he waited for her to ball up a fist and punch him Ball took the chance to catalog the pycon before him. Yes my height, probably my weight if I have to guess. Odd name, unfamiliar with Pyken. I suspect she should be going to Nivel before me. Maybe the Squirrel.

Ball popped the bubbles out of his ‘joints’. Something about the way he spoke, popped air bubbles from his body, and the way he stood currently Ball felt he was clearly the best option to it would seem to teach her. Nivel he knew was not trained as well as he was, Archailist would do it well enough, but the squirrel was more likely to show her how to jump or tumble he felt. No, her patron might have been right in sending Numia his way.

“Once we see how you punch, we can go to the next step of training. You will need to listen and we shall move forward at a pace that might be fast for you. But I assure you that if you keep up you will be a formidable opponent.”

[Numia]

Looking across the yard for her mentor, Numia practically jumped when the deep voice of another Pycon plowed through her senses. Twitching, nervously, she spun around and took a step back - a step that didn’t have any ground beneath it. Numia fell tumbling through the air a couple of feet into the dirt, a cloud of dust blooming around her. When she regained herself, she realized what a klutz she was and felt a spark of fury inside her directed towards her own personality for being so naive. Climbing to her feet, she jumped to the wall again and scrambled up, this time more quickly than the last. When she finally stood before her potential mentor again, Numia cocked her head at the Pycon and listened to him chide her about the stairs. She covered her face with a hand and looked away, hiding a slight smile.

“I could never climb well,” she said, removing her hand from her face and looking the Pycon in the … eye. “I’ve been practicing.” A half-truth, she really hadn’t noticed the stairs because she was so focused on scaling a wall for the sake of scaling walls. Then, he spoke of danger. “I can usually hear when someone is moving close to me, I’m not usually caught by surprise. I haven’t been stepped on since Alvadas more than a year ago.” Numia brushed her chest with one of her hands, a black ampersand symbol dominating much of the surface area like a cheap costume sticker. Now that she paused and listened to the Pycon, she could hear little things such as his slight breathing and the air within his body shifting his clay around slightly. The Pycon looked her over, but then he made an odd clucking sound, letting slip a sigh before introducing himself. Humans were still much noisier, Numia thought.

“A pleasure to meet you, Ball,” Numia said, rather calmly for what had happened moments before. She was taken aback by his profound appearance, particularly the color of his clay on one side of his body. Can he change color as I can? The way he carried himself though told her far more than the way he looked, but she did have the vague feeling that Ball might be the sort of Pycon to be a simpleton although she shoved those thoughts away and listened to him intently because, as was demonstrated earlier, she herself already was one.

When Ball asked her to throw a punch, Numia nodded to him and approached cautiously. He said he wouldn’t hurt her, but the definition of ‘hurt’ wasn’t exactly universal she’d noticed. This notion became more important when the Pycon entered a stance that she had not seen before, deliberately spreading his legs a little bit and holding his hands in an odd position. Still, it was unlikely he would seriously hurt her. Ball encouraged her some more, mentioning that she could become a ‘formidable opponent’ if she followed his instruction well. It seemed promising. She wanted to learn, no, she had to learn how to fight. “Okay, straight and to the point. Here I go!” Numia took a step forward and wrapped her hand up into a tight ball, and then another step before she charged at Ball with her arm cocked backward as the humans did. The entirety of her arm wobbled as she turned her hips and thrust her clenched fist at Ball haphazardly, aiming for the Pycon’s face as he had asked. In the process, she lost her footing and was forced to bring her front foot even more forward with a heavy stomping motion or she would lose her balance entirely and fall.

[Nivel]

The chosen heroine Nivel sprang out of her leather shoe in the early hours of the day, ready to combat the evil presence that lay in every dark corner. She crouched and darted towards the cover off the bed post and waited for the coast to be clear before sprinting swiftly towards the door. She stuck her head cautiously through the doorway hoping not to fall into an ambush of one of her many sworn enemies. There was not a soul to be seen in the dimly lit hallways only the flickering light of the ever present torches to guide her on her journey. The path would be fraught with peril and tears but Nivel was a mighty mage Knight and nothing but the most unstoppable monsters stand in her way.

Nivel eyed the worn bricks of the never ending passage, she was sure they would launch out her at any moment to crush her or reveal some kind of indescribable horror. The sudden sound of encroaching armoured foot steps could only be that of a seven legged armoured nexus eater. The pycon was strong but she would not be able to face such a fearsome foe, so she would have to retreat to the the sanctuary of heroes to gain more power.

Once Nivel was greeted with the fresh open air of the benevolent rooftop hideaway, she felt a bit more at ease. Though an erie chill entered her body as she sensed an oddly familiar power. It was too early to know if it was for good or ill, so she would have to remain constantly aware of her surroundings. She crouched low, so low in fact that she was practically slithering along the ground like a lizard made of clay. With this tactic, it would be impossible for her enemies to spot her since she would evoke the great power of the lizard lord and become completely invisible.

“Nivel crept silently across the floor towards her target. Her nexus beating steadily within her head as she inched ever closer to the dark sorceress that had ensnared Ball with her magic…”Nivel whispered as she found herself about a foot away from Ball and the source of the strange aura she sensed.
“The dark one trembled in fear at the great knight Balls immense power, she delivered a strike but it was weak and would never breach the Pyken masters immense defences. Though this mage was sure to have untold powers yet to be unlocked and it was up to the warrior mage princess Nivel to step in if her comrade was in need of assistance.” The pycon continued to narrate her fictional scenario in dramatic whispers. She had wedged her slender body inside the subtle indent between the floor bricks but only a blind pycon would miss her as she wasn’t being very stealthy.
OocJust to clarify Nivel is playing make believe, I'm well aware that there isn't lizard powers of invisibility and four legged Nexus eaters

[Ball]

Numia’s diminutive strike came out at Ball, his small hand reached up and snatched the punch right out of the air, stopping it dead in its tracks. A pause and Ball released her hand with a slight push backwards, it wasn’t an offensively devastating attack and yet Ball knew she was untrained from the moment she balled her fists up.

“Rule number one. Know you environment.” Ball turned his body to the left and looked dead onto Nivel, “Staring Pycon. Care to join?” He nodded and looked back at Numia, “You need to practice your form. You need to practice your fist forming… And you need to practice how to punch. You cannot punch just like the larger Pycons. We are not designed like that. I will show you.”

Ball’s right hand mushed itself into a fist at his side before he just lashed out with his arm. It was a near whip like representation of a strike. One tick it was just sitting there, the next it was streaking through the air at Numia. Ball had pulled his punch just a breadth from Numia’s face. “We are made of elastic clay. Use what you have as your advantage.”

Ball nodded, “Now again, throw a punch at me, using the information I just told you.” Ball lowered his arm once more and glanced at Nivel, half expecting his fellow Pycon to make a comment. “Lesson two will come shortly. First, that punch.” He nodded at Numia and waited, even though he was the same height as her and weight, she was thinner formed and spiker. She should use her advantages. She’s not, she is entirely untrained. Ball knew he had some work cut out for him currently, but it was work he was willing to put forth to get another squire ready for combat.

[Numia]

Numia flinched as her hand was caught by the comparatively big clay mittens of the other Pycon. It stopped her punch entirely, and with great accuracy. There was a slight pause, and then Ball pushed back against her. The force was such that she would have fallen flat on her back if she hadn’t taken a step back to regain her balance, luckily she knew where the ledge was this time and did not fall again. Still, even that left her with a slight sway. Numia was so caught up in the attack that she didn’t pay any heed to the other strange Pycon’s words at first. Numia turned her head to look at Nivel, who was bleeding into the floor cracks and telling some sort of story in a strange way. Numia was sure she felt something strange about her and the way she moved. Were all Pycon in Syliras this eccentric?

Rule one, know your environment. Numia always tried to pay attention, but it did seem logical to keep in mind where to plan your attacks from and where potential danger can emerge from. The ‘Staring Pycon’ was invited by Ball to join his session, was she untrained as well? The odd movements of the other Pycon were impressive to Numia, and reminded her that there was a lot a Pycon could do that a human could not. Ball further reiterated that Numia needed to learn and practice some things while humans were not designed like Pycon, which was true, but for some reason she hadn’t thought about it very much. Numia had always been so caught up in her music and magic for all this time that a sort of disconnect had formed. Today, she would be bridging the gap that had formed and learning about how to fight the proper Pycon way.

Numia watched as Ball demonstrated, melding his clay together into a solid fist on the end of his arm and whipping it like a hammer towards Numia’s face which made her instinctively step to the side only after it stopped the width of a hair from her body. It was so fast, she couldn’t even react. To Numia, she could hear it whistle as the air parted around it and blew over her small form. It was a powerful strike, one similar to the punch of a human in strength, maybe even stronger. More importantly, it was fast and impossible to track. Elasticity? She’d noticed that before, but she never thought to use it as a weapon before … a good idea, truly. Use what you have … the other strange Pycon next to Ball reminded her that clay was malleable, and though it might feel weird it might be worth practicing and devising different uses for her clay.

When Ball asked her to throw a punch again, she took a few steps forward away from the ledge because she knew she would be asking for it this close to the edge. "Alright, I'll give this a try. I think I understand what you mean." Numia shifted her clay around her right claw carefully, bundling it into a similar size of clay as Ball’s fist using his as an example. Elastic … right, if I pull on my arm very fast it will extend and ‘whip’ like Ball’s arm? Numia gave it a try, and she stepped forward to throw the punch at Ball again. Her arm shot out, a little more straight and faster this time with only a slight elastic touch to it. More importantly, her hand was in a proper fist.

[Nivel]

Nivel waited patiently until the other pycon had delivered her punch before she tried to get Balls attention. “Ball you alerted the dark one to my presence.” Nivel forcefully whispered at the other pycon as if he had broken an obvious rule. the pycon mage sighed and pushed herself off the ground.
“Since you broke the ambience I was trying to set up, I might as well join you two in training.” She grumbled as she approached the two.

“Hello.” Nivel addressed the newcomer “My name is Nivel, I hale from Pyconia and like you I’m a mage of the order.” She wore a smile on her clay face and gave a respectful bow. Nivel could sense a magic user quite easily so she assumed the other mage had the same feeling. Ball only had a touch of magic skill but he would learn to hone that sense the more he grew accustomed to it.

Nivel turned back to Ball and eased herself into a fighting stance with her legs shoulder width apart and her arms and prehensile hair poised and ready to strike. Her monstrous tails weren’t really cooperating however and continued to glare at Numia and even snap their clay teeth in her direction. “Now it’s my turn to throw an attack at Ball, I’m not the most skilled at fighting but I could possibly show you a thing or two.”

Nivel was planning to use a few of the fighting techniques she had seen her mother, the retired knight Nyro preform. Nyro was a fierce combatant with an almost savage fighting style, which was in contrast to the elegant dance like style Nivel was trying to develop. It was always good to keep an opponent on their toes so throwing in a drastic change during combat would help make Nivels attacks less predictable, or at least thats what Nivel hoped.

Nivel started with a distraction which she accomplished by gently moving her prehensile braids about in an almost hypnotic manner. They started out like the ripples of a pond but soon moved more violently like crashing ocean waves. She wanted ball to think she was ready to attack using her hair at any moment, but instead she rushed forward with with a deep war cry and thrust her head at him. Instead of a head as one would expect, she thrust her wings down like spider fangs with the intent of plunging them into his clay flesh. Her attack wasn’t over however, she had another trick up her sleeve. She stepped forward again and forcefully pushed the excess clay from her rear braids into her back and out her chest with a dynamic twist. Her mother called the first move her wing fang and the last one the spiral of death. Up until now Nivel hadn’t been able to preform them well, but the pycon knew she was doing her mother proud by using her signature moves effectively.

[Ball]

Ball turned with Numia’s punch, watching it slide past his body before his hands lifted up and swatted her fist and arm down to the ground. A smile graced his face before he nodded, “Better. Try it again. This time I want you to swing with Niv--.” Ball turned his attention in Nivel's direction as he saw movement just beyond the field of his normal vision, it was hinting at an attack and as such Ball shifted to face his second student, Nivel.

Ball’s eyes drew briefly to her hair - the source of the attacks, but it was only long enough to realize that they weren’t really moving in a fashion that was going to affect him beyond make him dizzy and thus weren’t worth his attention for long. The war cry that pierced the air sent sounds of startled squires into the air alongside it but Ball paid zero attention to it, it was just another distraction – another mind game. The mage-squire before him had been learning, practicing, training. Ball smirked as the wings came forward towards him – this was the start of her attack. A shift in his body, tearing his body in half so that Nivel’s wings slide into the open gap that was his body, the braids on Nivel’s head disappeared Ball noticed, her body gaining the clay from the head adornments and Ball twisted both halfs to flow around the extend wings and underneath Nivel’s body as he twisted into a corkscrew and with a soft pushed to force Nivel to continue forward in her current momentum and direction Ball had turned a full one hundred and eighty degrees and used his hand as a guide for Nivel’s body to follow.

It was just a soft forward push, a nudge really – but the consequences of Nivel’s forward momentum turned a soft placed hand into a motion of damage. Once Ball was done he turned back to Numia and paused, “As I was saying... Try striking with Nivel's attack. Learn to fight amongst your environment and friends. But there was another lesson here: When striking against another, remember their center of gravity adjusts to you. You are smaller than they are, they have to lean down to hit you. We are smaller so to hit us they must adjust themselves. But that puts them at a disadvantage, for they have to shift their balance and that is when you strike.”

Ball turned back to Nivel, “You need to stop alerting your opponent of your attacks. They are not going to be startled in combat when you scream at them. Just hit them. Once they notice you they are going to try and put you down. Staring Pycon, have you learned nothing since last time?”

[Samuel Longwell]

Grading Complete Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade. Name: Numia XP Award: Acrobatics 1 Climbing 1 Observation 2 Socialisation 1 Unarmed Combat 2 Lore: Know your environment Unarmed Combat: The use of Pycon elasticity. Don't fight like a human Nivel: Mage Pycon Rewards:+1 Shield Point for training Name: Ball XP Award: Teaching 3 Leadership 1 Observation 1 Tactics 1 Lore: Numia:Young Pycon Squire Teaching: Watching a student's technique Rewards: +1 Shield point for training another knight's squire Notes: A good start to a training thread, I'm sorry to see that it got abandoned. I hope you enjoy your grades