Closed [Fighters Pit] Rough Around the Edges

[Skylar Draykin]

Day 10, Season of Summer, 514 After securing a job, Skye decided to to explore the city. This was her first time out of Sunberth, so she was curious about what life outside her birth place was. It was odd, walking down the street knowing she didn't have to watch her back. Not that that stopped her from occasionally looking over her shoulder. While out and about, she noticed many different people. There were people with kelvics, kelvics without owners, people with flaming red hair she could only assume were people from the mountains. She couldn't remember the name of their race, only that they lived with giant birds as she recalled. She noticed the horse people, the Drykas. She knew more about them. She had even learned Pavi from some of the travelers that came into Sunberth, who had learned it from journeying through Endraykis. Skylar also notice a fair amount of people in armour. Knights and squires of Syliras. She held some knowledge about knights and knighthood from her father and even a bit from her grandfather. But her grandfather died when Skye turned ten and her father cared very little for actual knights. All around her was the sound of talking and shouting and clanking of armour. But as she walked, Skye heard a faint but familiar sound. She began to follow her ears, noticing the noise get louder and louder with every step. Thehn she came upon what at first looked like an abandoned old building of some sort. But upon entering she saw something that almost. brought her to tears.A fighters arena.She heard the sound she had been following, but now it sounded like music. The sound of metal clashing together. The grunts of people being hit with their foes weapons. Skye stood by and watched two pepple closest to her fight. They were using swords of some kind; Skye couldn't tell. She herself prefered knives as her personal weapons, as they were lightweight. Actually she prefered unarmed, raw, bare fisted brawling. She looked around, wondering if people around this city cared for that skill like she did.

[Billie]

Billie didn’t come to the fighters pit often to train, but it had been a rather slow day of horse riding (Well, training someone else how NOT to fall off a horse), and she was in the mood for some excitement. She usually did most of her training in the woods because she wouldn’t be disturbed. It was her own space, however it was no place to train when she wanted to actually fight a real opponent.

And nothing compared to that. Fists flying, adrenaline pumping through her veins, sweat pouring down her forehead. She didn’t exactly like to admit that she got a rush when her fist connected with someone’s flesh, but the feeling compared to nothing else. Growing up in sunberth had given her some nasty, violent habits when she fought. One of them being that she refused to back down, or pull her punches, no matter how much her opponent tried to back down. Since meeting Lacey she had learned to control that kind of merciless ferocity in a sparring match. Well, she’d learned to quell it.

She stood on a mat, practicing her forms. She held no weapon because she preferred fighting with her fists. All the while she was maintaining her focus and breathing, whilst still looking out for potential sparring partners that she could (Hopefully) not be beaten to a pulp by. She jumped slightly in place, fists up, beating the air mercilessly. Her face was contorted into an intensity that never lived outside of the fighters pit. One had to put up a tought front here, if they were to be respected. At least that was what Billie assumed.

The downside was that this place did remind her of home, which in tern, reminded her of Sadie. And that was fine, as long as her thoughts didn’t travel too far down the woman’s short timeline to her untimely death: that would distract her from the fight, it wouldn’t pump her up. No, she had to channel Sadie’s teachings only.

She stopped to scan the crowd, and her eyes fell upon another girl. She seemed new, and was just watching. She looked pretty, but tough. Billie straightened up and flattened her singlet slightly as she sized her up. She didn’t carry any obvious weapon with her. “Are you here to spar?” She asked the girl pointedly as she approached her.

[Skylar Draykin]

At first glance, Skye thought a tall guy was wallking towards her. But then she heard a voice ask if she was there to spar, and it was definitely a female voice. After Skye got to looking at her, she could make out slight curves on the woman. As the woman approached, Skye noticed sge didn't have a weapon.So when she had asked to spar, it meant unarmed and raw, just the way Skye liked it. "Not the intentions i had before i got here, but I'm up for a rumble." Skye replied with a cocky smirk. Eyeing the girl, Skylar straightened up a bit, trying to show up the girl. Skye had always been confident about her skills, sometimes too much so. She also couldn't resist a challenge. It had gotten her into trouble on many occassions. When her and Klove first started dating, Skye had wanted to show off for her so she took Klove to a little competition that was going on. Skye made it through three rounds and was given the choice to walk away or doube it and go against the champion of the night. Skye immediatly took the challenge and was immediatly knocked out cold. That night was spent on her bed with Klove tending to her black eye and her brothers laughing at her stupidity. Skylar believed she could take this girl. However, she could almost hear Kloves voice in her head telling her to be careful. To which Skye only chuckled and extended her hand. "Skylar. Skylar Draykin. You..uh..you train a lot? "She asked curiously, still with her cocky grin. It didn't seem like too many people brawled in the arena. Or maybe it was just an off day.

[Valdoran]

Valdoran approached the arena the way he usually did,in his civilian clothes, without his bladed cloak on, via rooftops and climbing the side before vaulting in and looking down, there were already two people there to his surprise as he looked down, clinging to the wall he looked down at the people. One of the girls was familiar, he'd seen her in the inn not too long ago, but didn't remember her name. He watched them intently, intending on picking up some pointers, he called out to Billie "So! Hello again missy!". He was surprised indeed to see her, as he never expected to see her again, but alas, here she was and here he was, the girl who saw him stealing. Saying it, he dropped and did a combat roll, not intending to be impressive, but he landed and did a combat roll, standing and getting rid of his momentum with a small hop and when he looked he noticed he was at arms length from the two of them. He smiled at them and did a small bow "Good day ladies, my name is Valdoran, and i'm very interested in training also, but i understand that you may dislike fighting in a multiple combat scenario, so i will stand back if you like and learn by observing, if you'd both prefer that?". He didn't know why he was being so polite in an arena and many of the burly men actually took a brief moment from making their cabbage textured faces to admire his manners. But they went back to fighting soon enough and Valdoran simply awaited a response calmly, casting his shortswords and rope dart to one side of the arena, managing to lodge each of them in the wall, now either he was being really lucky this morning or something was bound to go wrong much later, he never managed to do that, he wasn't even planning on lodging them either. He rubbed the back of his head and looked back to the two ladies and said simply "So, wha'ddya say?". As he took a very bad, stance, he'd never even trained in unarmed combat before and was looking foreward to learning, to fulfil his dream he needed to know this stuff, to breathe combat and the art of death.

[Billie]

Billie eyed the girl with a calculating expression. The way she smirked, and straightened up trying to be taller and more intimidating. She was obviously the cocky, self-assured type when it came to combat anyway, now that either meant she was compensating for lack of skill or she had reason to be so sure of herself. Either way, her type was easy to manipulate. Just made them angry by insulting their skill and they will do everything in their power to prove you wrong. This usually made them sloppy, which usually gave her an easy win. Still, underestimating an opponent was the first step to losing to them.

Seeing that the girl, now proclaimed to be Skylar Draykin, had offered her hand to be shaken, Billie retuned the handshake firmly. “Billie. And yes I train frequently, but not usually here.” She told her “I come here when I’m looking for a match.” She was about to say something else, probably pertaining to a request for a possible spar, when she was interrupted by a familiar voice. Oh, joy She thought to herself. She turned and looked at Valdoran. While the way he approached indicated he was probably pretty fast on his feet, in terms of fighting with his fists she may as well be looking at a child. His stance was flimsy and weak. “You’ll be lucky to hit within a meter of me if you use a stance like that.” She told him blatantly “How can you move if your knees are locked off? And you aren’t even guarding your face properly, look at that, an old woman could hit you and you wouldn’t have time to block it!”

She shook her head “I think you’d better watch very closely” She suggested, turning back to Skylar “Up for a 'rumble’ as you put it, Skylar Draykin?” She asked, letting her mouth curve into a tiny smile of anticipation as she made sure there was space around her. "if you’ve got any rules you want to lay down, speak up now before we begin.” She added respectfully "It’s only a friendly spar, after all."

She was excited, this would be a good train, she could feel it. There was something about Skylar that made her think she was going to be a tough opponent to beat.

[Valdoran]

Valdoran smiled as he stepped back, he knew himself that he couldn't punch a wooden door if it was closed on his fist ad so he obliged Billie, taking a step back to allow her to spar and allow him to observe as he said quite ordinarily "Of course, who am I to say two women can't roll around in the dirt!". With his comment, all of the brutes turned once more and stopped fighting against one another to watch the two women go at it. Valdoran knew he had to learn, he knew that his abilities were more focused on stealth than in simply fighting, but in order to fulfil what he wanted, to become truly great, he needed to practice his art of killing and weaponry, so he sat back and watched as he knew the most deadly weapon an assassin has would be himself, his hands sculpt death like a fine clay, and he needed to become truly great at dual wielding too. It was only after choosing his own plans of action he realised that all of the men flocked at what he said before he turned to the mass of men and said simply "Right lads, clear off, the ladies are here to spar just like you". With this a lot of the men cleared off, disappointed that these women weren't going to be naked mud wrestling or something, but that didn't matter, not to him, he was a student of combat

[Skylar Draykin]

Skye watched as a strange man rolled up to them. He was uknown to her but apparently was recognized by the girl, Billie she was called. Skye watched as Valdoran took up a terrible stance. It looked like the stance she used when her brothers were first teaching her how to fight. She let out an audible chuckle but was quite relieved when Billie told him to stand back. He may not have been very experienced, but that's not what she wanted. She wanted a true opponent. Just the fact that Billie pointed out Valdorans flaws in his stance showed that she had at least some knowledge of unarmed combat. What she REALLY knew Skye would find out soon enough. "Rules? Only keep in mind we are both mortal." She said with a small laugh. She then prepared herself, taking one step back. She placed her left foot slightly in front of her right, pointing more towards Billie. Her right foot was more at an angle. She bent her knees a bit, bouncing ever so slightly with them. She held up her left arm above somewhat in front of her right, her left hand parallel with her chin. Her right arm bent a little more, her hand across from her chest. She could almost see her brothers bending each limb as they popped into her stance. She kept her smirk. She knew what she was doing with her body at this point, and everyone who saw this would know "You got any rules you wanna state?" She asked. She imagined Klove was there, cheering her on, like she did for anything Skye competed in. She imagined her brothers were there. Seth and Brock would be wolf wisteling and telling her not to mess up. But James, who was always the more helpful of the three and most encouraging, would have already whispered hints and openings he saw in her opponent and would then stand back and watch silently, occassionally shouting out encouragments. All this gave Skye a little more bounce in her stance as she watched Billie.

[Billie]

The group of men who flocked at Vald’s comment didn’t phase her, she didn’t even bother looking at them. What they were about to see if they cared to watch would be no namby-pamby wrestling match designed for their entertainment. They’d see that soon. Billie didn’t pull her punches.

Billie assumed a shorter stance made for balance and agility, opening both her hands and placing one far out in front of he, the other resting near her chest and chin ready to protect her face. Her eyes narrowed as she shut out the crowd of men, zeroing in on Skylar and empting her head of anything but the fight ahead. “No rules from me” She said “Ladies first” She said as she hopped lightly in place, waiting for the first strike. She preferred to start on the offensive. She locked her eyes onto her opponents with as much intensity as she could muster; confidence and concentration was key to making her seem like an intimidating opponent.

She imagined Sadie was watching her, and the constant need she used to feel to impress the woman, to earn her praise came back to her in that moment and she bent her knees in preparation for an attack. She wanted to learn about her opponent before she made any kind of bold moves. She had to keep her guard up, focus complete and her breathing steady. No distractions from the fight, for sure Sadie would attempt to distract her, testing her to see if she could make Billie falter. She awaited the first attack readily.

[Skylar Draykin]

Skye took a deep breath in, her heart beginning to pump faster from the anticipation. After hearing no rules from Billie, she said, "Lets dance." and she lunged forward, jabbing with her left hand towards Billies face. Skye was always straightforward like that. Whether it connected or not, it gave her a slight opening to attempt for her gut. Being a good few inches shorter than Billie made it harder to actually get to the face but she even enough with the stomach. She then jumped to the side and swung her right leg up, intending to make contact with. Billies side. By now the men around them would have figured out that these two weren't here to put on a show. They were here to train and improve their skill. For Skye, shhe also wanted to make somewhat of a name for herself in Syliran. She didn't care for being the big shot. She only wanted respect from the respected. Skye imagined she was back in Sunberth. She imagined looking over at Klove, seeing her happy, cheering face as Skye danced around her opppnent. She only had to imagine, and it was all the motivation she needed. Beads of sweat were begining to slightly form on Skyes forehead. Skye could tell this was going to be a great match. She hopped back and shook out her arms. She took off her top shirt, revealing a white sleeveless underneath. She was glad had decided to put on a little more that morning. She could hear James in the back.of her mind. Skye, don't underestimate the enemy. That will get you knocked out quick. Pay attention to your feet. You know how clumsy you can get when you're excited. It was stuff she had heard a thousand times over, but she tried to heed the words. But Skye was shallow, and tended to.get ahead of herself if she thought she had a better chance than.she actually did. Only time would tell.

[Billie]

oocOh my gosh, that picture of your character is so cute, I don’t want to hit her now xD
It didn’t take long for the young lady to attack, and she certainly didn’t need that invitation from Billie. Right away she aimed for her face with a short, but effective jab, which Billie blocked with a flick of her wrist, diverting the force of the attack behind her head, rather than into her face. Nearly at the same time her other arm shot towards Billie’s gut. Using the same hand that had blocked the first strike, she stopped the attack with a sweeping block. “Move your feet! Watch your guard!” Sadie called from her head. Billie obeyed, lifting op her fists and spinning into the force of the kick, blocking it with two arms and forcefully pushing her leg back down. What a powerful kick, Billie couldn’t help but think

Skylar was strong, and she was fast. She would have to beat her using more tactical means, for it was clear that was Billie’s strong suit.

“Chase her down, don’t let her rest” Sadie chanted from within as Skylar hopped back nimbly, readjusting her clothing before Billie could lay a finger on her to retaliate. Billie didn’t want to lose ground, so she did as her teacher advised, changing tact and following her. She pushed her right knee up into the air as if she were about to send a very obvious forward kick to the woman’s chest.

However, now that she had hopefully been distracted by the fake impending kick, at the last minute she stomped her airborne leg down hard on Skylar’s dominant foot. She followed up immediately by twisting her weight around on the ball of her foot, spinning 90 degrees so that she was side on and could effectively launch a powerful roundhouse kick of her own at Skylar’s side.

Billie grounded herself and readjusted her guard again, catching her breath. Weather she blocked it or not it would give her some time to get her balance back from the tricky maneuver.