Closed [Antinous Training Grounds] Catch Me If You Can!

[Archailist]

6th of Fall, 514.

The training combat that Arch'd been having with Ser Iros was hitting a peak of uselessness. The crimson Akalak was by no means weak or awkward in the use of the incredibly long spear.. if anything, he was doing an astounding job with it. But the squirrel just wasn't being hit. He knew why just as much as Ser Iros, unfortunately. The spear was too long and too narrow - only the tip was particularly useful in causing damage and even then, the only way to actually harness it was to stab straight forwards. It was all too predictable, too obvious. The squirrel could see it a mile away and by the time it'd eventually reached him, he'd slipped to the side or hopped above it. Their fights were so predictable, that the squirrel was tempted to hop atop the spear and use it as a balancing beam so that he could cross the distance. Before he could, the man stopped him with a soft wheeze. Body-building was one thing Ser Iros had.. but endurance was what he needed. "That was good, Squire Archailist. Better than last time." He didn't know whether the man was referring to himself, or to the squirrel. Sure, it put a bit of strain on what should have been muscles to the squirrel.. but it wasn't really helping his combat.

"Right, I'm going to take a break. If you want, you can join me." At least they'd become somewhat more friendly during their time together. He supposed that after all of the continuous training sessions they'd gone through together, the knight had finally come to somewhat accept the squirrel for what he was - a squirrel. For that, he was at least grateful. Although.. it still felt like it wasn't really enough for him. Their fighting sessions were becoming mediocre and useless when the squirrel wasn't really being pushed any more. It didn't matter that he couldn't throw a hit for shyke, because the Akalak couldn't throw one either when the squirrel was too fast to get a strike in. He just wasn't learning anything any more from the man, as much as it pained him to admit such a thing. The only thing that Ser Iros was good for, by this point, was teaching him how to ride his dog. And that, he wasn't awful at.

"I think I'm going to go around for a walk and see if I can find somebody else to spar with." The crimson Akalak acknowledged it with a short nod, as he took a seat at one of the low walls nearby to begin unstrapping the heavy tower shield from his right forearm - as well as leaning his spear down alongside him. The thing nearly came up to his chest, when he was standing up.. now it loomed menacingly over his head, and made the weapon appear even longer than it actually was. The squirrel was pale in comparison.. he was a tenth of its size, or less. A whole five feet tall, and he was barely five inches. It made him swell with pride to think that such a large thing was having so much trouble landing a single blow on his small body. Although, there were bigger fish to fry that day. He needed to find a worthy opponent.

[Garland]

Garland had his shield raised with his sword aimed at his opponent, his patron knight, Catherine Ashe. He focused on her, trying to find a dent in her defenses. Catherine's eyes bore into Garland's own, she was trying to test his resolve, and at the same time she was inspecting his movements. She lowered her shield slightly, to try and see if he noticed the slight movement.

Garland quickly sprang into action, attacking with a high downward slash. Catherine knew that that would be anyone's choice of attack if the defense was focused somewhere else. She forced her shield arm up, blocking the heavy downward blow, and then, seeing that Garland was left open, kicked him in the stomach, forcing him down on the ground.

[color=red]"You left yourself open, focus on defense, not offense." she placed her foot on the downed squire's chest. "I could have beaten you with a shield alone. Remember to always have some way to fall back and avoid your opponent, let them come to you." She took off her foot and stepped back. "Again. Try to knock me down."

Garland nodded, rising up from the dirt and stone, dusting off his clothes and armor. He raised his shield and sword, keeping a close eye on Catherine. He tightened his grip on his sword, he took a quick breath and attacked with a diagonal slash. Catherine blocked it easily, but that wasn't the real attack. Garland hopped back a step and the slammed his shield into hers, making her stagger, but she had her feet dug down on the soil, rooting her in place. Catherine pushed back, forcing Garland to commit himself into the shield. Catherine could feel that Garland was using his full force on the shield, trying to force her to topple. She sidestepped out of the shield fight, making Garland stumble with so much force he put into it.

Garland rolled on the ground, quickly getting up to a ready stance. He stepped in close, forcing Catherine to back off if she wanted to properly fight or defend. Garland wanted this. With Catherine using her time to back off, Garland stepped low and fast, he forced his entire body up, breaking Catherine's defense. He saw the opening he was hoping for, using his shoulder and the momentum of his steps, slammed his shoulder into Catherine's chest making her fall to the ground.

Garland wiped the sweat from his brow and offered his hand to his patron. She accepted the hand and got up. "Not bad for a newly appointed squire." He said, smiling.

"I guess, but I've seen better." She replied with a cheeky smirk. "Why don't you find someone else to spar with. So you can see if you are stronger than the others."[/color]

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Unarmed as the squirrel was.. the first thing Arch did was search for weapons. Well, it'd be entertainment to say the least. Those with the larger, heavier weapons were - by a rule of thumb - slower and essentially easier to get around. One could have the strongest weapon in all of Mizahar but none of that mattered if it couldn't even land a single swing. One of the reasons that Ser Iros often found himself toppled. On a first glance, he immediately ruled out all of those that carried the larger weapons. Greatswords, warhammers.. all of them lumbered around in heavy, clanky plate-mail armour like they had a compulsion to slap as much metal onto their bodies as possible. Not that it'd ever do them any good when fighting a weapon small enough to fit between the gaps.. but none of them seemed to particularly care.

Unfortunately, there were none with smaller weapons. By smaller, he meant daggers. Well.. he supposed that was to be expected. A man was only as big as his weapon, they all said. The squirrel had his own little motto, just like they did. The bigger the brain, the smaller the sword. The smallest blades he could see were short-swords, mixed around with a variation of smaller and larger shields. None of them seemed to be wielded by.. exceptional squires. Under the eyes of the Weaponmasters, they waved their swords around as though they were magic little wands - just as ready to poke their own damn eye out with it as much as the knight standing next to them. The best he could find, in fact, were long-swords, bastard-swords.. goodness knew that today was going to be a very interesting day.

On about the fourth glance about the Grounds, he finally spotted one pair that seemed to be running quite well. Just for a bit of fun, he stopped nearby and let his stubby little paws hang low while he watched them go at it. Not bad at all, really. Like all of them, including the squirrel, there was plenty of room for improvement. He'd make a good sparring partner, though. As the fight slowly drew to a close, the squirrel took the moment to step forwards and offer himself with an exceptionally baritone shout to the two. "I believe I could offer myself." Well, at least he knew that he'd be fighting with a moderately competent competitor. Not like all the other fights he'd had so far with the other squires and the occasional knight - the ones that seemed to be as clumsy with their swords as if they always held them in the wrong hand.

"Just don't go to ground." Well, he owed the boy at least one piece of advice before they got started. After all, armour or no armour.. if the squirrel got to the boys upper body, it was game over. It'd become a bit of a standing rule, by that point. Although it was just a brief thought.. he wondered if he could try to make the boy vomit, the same as he'd done with the snake-girl from the Fighters Pit.. well, he could test out the pressure points he'd hit before, after all.

[Garland]

oocahhhhhhhh I just spent an hour writing a reply and then I lost all of it

Garland wiped the sweat off his brow. He took his sword and shield, looking for an opponent, he didn't know much of the fighters here, but he did know his own weaknesses, and that could mean he might be able to hide his shortcomings and attack back with full force.He had built his muscles through the hard work during the Djed storm of 512, so that would mean that the heavy plate mail didn't bother him as much as the lighter and smaller squires, but despite the strength to wear such a thing, he would still be slowed by the weight.

He glanced over to each of the squires practicing or sparring. He was no expert, by he was sure that he would beat them, given the time to work out a strategy. In fact he was already making some right now. The great sword wielding squires would have heavy attacks, and such. He would be slow, Garland could rush in close, making his great weapon more of a hindrance than an asset. He even noticed the grip of the squire, it could have been that he was tired, but his loose grip on such a large weapon would mean he would be able to disarm him quickly and efficiently.

He saw a smaller more nimble fighter sparring with her patron knight. She was fast sure, but she wasn't strong enough to deal one strong attack, though she could pose more of a threat, she could attack the weak points of her armor and quickly incapacitate him, but he did notice that her attacks were very clumsy for someone like her. She wouldn't be able to attack him that well. He could attack her legs, make he'd unbalanced, then quickly finish off the fight.

He was about to ask one of them to spar when he heard the low voice of a pycon. He turned around and looked down to see a squirrel wearing cute tiny armor. It would have been adorable had he not been challenged by this squirrel. "Being challenged by a squirrel to a sparring match? Ehhh not the strangest thing to happen. I accept." He tried to measure the squirrel worth in combat, he was surely fast enough, but same as the girl, he wouldn't be too strong. He wondered if this pycon was mostly in squirrel form most of his time, would his mount chase him? He was getting sidetracked again. He would be fast and small enough to get into the cracks of his armor, so he needed to watch out for that. He thought that it might be a quick fight, he was painfully mistaken

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel actually never wore any armour - it was just too restrictive and generally useless. No matter whether or not he was wearing a full assortment of plate-mail, creatures well over ten times larger than he was could easily squash him with a foot. Small wounds would immediately seal themselves with more clay, too.. so it wouldn't really be any good in deflecting attacks. For the most part, the squirrel just walked around completely naked. He didn't have to worry about restrictions in his movement, or his clothes and armour getting caught on anything. Besides, it wasn't like he really needed to wear any clothes. He was a squirrel, through and through - right down to the bushy tail that poked out of the base of his spine. "Wonderful. Although I hope you realize I'm not a real squirrel. I'm a Pycon." He felt like he had to explain himself a little. Not many people, human or otherwise, really knew about Pycons as a race or as individuals.

"Now.. I suppose we'll get ready, and on the count of three, you can go ahead and start." The squirrel didn't really have much intention on starting out, considering that he was unarmed and generally just wanted to get a bit of a feel for the man before he ran head-first into his shin. Watching and observing from a distance was one thing that opened up a lot of opportunity.. but fighting first-hand was something else entirely. Perhaps, one day, it would be different.. but he didn't really have a grasp of the various human weapons, so he could never tell how proficient one human was in comparison to another unless they were facing each-other.. and even that was pretty crude at best. "Uhm.. are you sure you want to go with that shield." He'd been standing there for a while, wondering about the man, before he noticed the shield at his side. "I'm afraid it won't do much good in our fight." He was just giving advice, based on the last few experiences of knights and squires that insisted on using their shelds in battle. Including his patron knight, unfortunately.

When one went against a squirrel barely five inches tall, unless they were going to bring out a miraculously massive shield that they could also see through, they were going to find it more limiting than actually useful. Arch could climb on it.. he could hide behind it.. if it was small enough, then he could just ignore it entirely because he was never going to make an attempt above the ankles, unless he was using a Py-Pole.. and even then, it wasn't going to be particularly helpful unless they were very skilled in it.

Either way, with the last piece of advice given, he turned on the spot and took several steps back and away from the man, before turning once again to face him. "Come on then. Let's see what you've got. One. Two. Three." If the squirrel had pockets, he'd likely have both of his paws inside them as he watched the man very carefully. Although he wasn't really showing the true scale of his wariness, he was wound tight - ready to spring aside the moment he needed to.

[Garland]

Garland made his way to the other side of the sparring area. "Oh, I know. I've had my fair run ins with a Pycon a while back." He looked at his opponent, he wanted to know what he was planning. He ran several scenarios in his mind, trying to think up the best way to approach this. The squirrel will most likely be faster than any of his attacks, so a frontal assault would be out of the question.

When his opponent gave him some friendly advice for his shield, it gave him a wonderfully bad plan that could be stupid enough to work. Then again it could backfire horribly, and give him a disadvantage. Though he did have to agree with the Pycon, his shield would be more of an disadvantage right now, for one thing he was fighting a squirrel, what good would a shield do? And the squirrel didn't have any weapons on him right now, and even if he did, he could just attack him from the inside of his armor.

He raised his shield, and cautiously moved in closer to his opponent. When he felt close enough, he dropped his shield and grabbed it by the edge. He wound up his arm, and then threw it at his opponent. He didn't expect it to hit, maybe just make him dodge to an unfavorable location, and if he didn't dodge he hoped that it would distract him long enough for the second part of his plan.

As soon as he threw his shield, he sprinted after it, intending to kick the Pycon away from him to give him some time to think for another dangerously stupid plan.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel rose an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh?" he muttered, in a way that clearly prompted the man to continue. After all, the only other two Pycons that the squirrel knew about in all of Sylira were Ball, Nivel and Hammer Fist. If anything he'd need to interrogate the man later on, to know exactly who it was that he'd seen, what he'd learned for them.. if anything, it tipped his entire take on the man. He likely knew about Pycons and potentially knew how to deal with them in a fight. He had no clue exactly how much experience he had with them.. did the Pycon he fight have as much acrobatic experience as the squirrel did? He just couldn't be sure. Doubtful that this man had the same acrobatic talent, but.. he might know how to deal with it, potentially know some way, some tactic that could give him a serious edge.

Or at least, he would, if he dropped that damn shield as he approached. The squirrel could barely jump up and touch the thing if he wanted to, let alone actually launch an attack that would likely be deflected by it. He was pretty content to just stand there and wait for the man to make his move.. but he had to say, he was pretty damn surprised with what came next - namely, a whole shield thrown straight towards him. Well, if he's not going to use it, I guess he can justify that pretty well. It didn't take that much effort to hop over the shield as it clattered over the ground beneath him and span off to the side, rolling on its rim like a funny-shaped cart wheel. The act unfortunately drew more than a few stares in their direction from the other knights and squires that were training alongside them, but he supposed that just about anything would at that moment.

He had to admit, the man worked fast - he'd barely gotten airborne, and already he could see another attack being thrown his way. Not that it was really done with the best intentions in mind for Garland's own health.. true enough that the squirrel wasn't very big, five inches tall at best. Those twenty-three pounds held inside him was the real danger. Working fast, he pulled as much clay as possible into his feet to strengthen it, making the clay more compact and harder to squish - likely that the squirrel wouldn't get away feeling as good as he did when he started this fight, but to Garland, he was going to turn himself into a veritable brick wall falling straight down onto that foot. Well.. this definitely escalated quickly. It's barely been a few ticks and already I'm going to get a kick straight in the damn stomach.

[Garland]

Garland smiled as the squirrel took to the air, he expected this much. He also expected the Pycon to be light but durable, how else would they survive for so long in this world? He saw the shield tumble away, hopefully still usable,because now would not be the best time to have to pay for broken equipment. There were eyes on the two of them, knights and squires alike looked on with interest, even a large crimson Akalak and his own mentor decided to join the spectators.

Catherine crossed her arms, inspecting the fight closely. She had a tense look on her face, waiting for what he would do next.

He gave a strong kick right in the Pycon's stomach, but he didn't fly off like he intended, in fact he barely flew a few feet, though he did feel his foot take a very painful hit of its own. "ow ow ow ow ow ow!" He repeated in pain while holding his foot, and hoping in place.

Catherine sighed. "For the love of Sylir, focus you idiot! Ignore the pain and get ready." She yelled a little too loudly, drawing stares at her. She gave a small cough and continued to watch the fight.

Garland heeded his teacher's word and quickly got into a one-handed stance with his bastard sword. He hopped back to give himself some room and twirled his weapon to get a feel for it and loosen his grip. He stared at the squirrel, waiting for him to attack. He wasn't going attack blindly and tire himself out. He learned that pacing yourself is just as important as strength and speed.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

It wasn't a pleasant experience, suddenly being kicked. But it really wasn't something new. There were always people that were going to use the feet - everyone used the feet. There was no point in using the hands unless one had the speed of a Viper Dhani, and there was no point in using weapons unless they were not only incredibly long and incredibly wide, but also incredibly light. A normal sword was just too easy to evade, and a large war-hammer was so slow to swing that the squirrel could be behind the guy by the time he'd finished preparing his swing, let alone when he actually tried to throw it. As he lay for a matter of ticks on his back, taking heavy breaths and trying to push his pain away for the spur of the moment, he couldn't help but wonder how long the boy would be using that sword before he ultimately threw it away and tried using nothing but his feet. He'd bet about.. two or three chimes, at the most.

Then, he rose, and ran straight for the mans legs - using all four paws, with his tail stretched out behind him for counterbalance. He wasn't about to just stand there all day and wait for the man to make a swing with the damn thing, because he just didn't have the time for it. He was either going to try and dodge, or he was going to make a swing with that sword, and both of those things were going to end with the squirrel punching him straight in the ankle for that damn kick. Before the fight was over, he was going to land his own foot right in the boys stomach to see how he liked it! All I need to do is close the distance. That sword looks pretty long - it's one-handed so he'll be able to swing it pretty fast, but it's too thin. I can slide around it pretty easily. Besides - all he had to do was keep up the pressure and he'd eventually topple the guy, one way or the other.

[Garland]

Garland bent down low to match Arch's height. He knew that a Pycon only has one major organ, if you can even call it that, he doesn't know where or what it is but he knew that it could be deadly if it was attacked.

He was going to feint a sweep attack. Hopefully it would catch him off guard, he placed the sharp end of his blade down horizontally and waited for the squirrel to get close to him. He didn't have to wait very long though.

The squirrel was on him faster than he could react. He tried to raise his sword and make the Pycon impale himself. Though he was too close now and it would be too obvious.

He followed through with his sweep attack, hopefully making the squirrel dodge, and then follow up by grabbing his tail and throwing him.

His plan can go in so many different ways. The squirrel could duck instead, making it harder to grab, or he could have stepped back and attack after Garland had finished his own, but if his plan failed, he would be open for attack.