(CRP): Full Circle

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Silence

(CRP): Full Circle

Post by Silence »

He'd stood here before.

Literally, he'd stood in the dueling arena hundreds of times. He'd watched other people fight and he'd fought himself. He had spent hours daily refining his technique for the past three years.

But it had all started when a witcher had decided to pick him up off the streets and give him a few lessons in return for being his 'legacy'. He'd resolved to do something with that power... he'd resolved to make something of himself... and what had he accomplished? He had gained the fear of thousands of demons... he had thwarted two of the seven dark mages and he'd fought against armies of changeling hunters. And yet, he'd accomplished nothing truly important.

Well, maybe he could at least pass something forward.

It was midnight... Alder hadn't chosen this time for any reason other than it reminded him of his own first training session, the first time he'd set foot into a dueling ring with Reaver. He'd come in rags. After all, although he did wear armor when he wanted to fight seriously, this wasn't a serious fight, and armor obscured his movements. He wanted to show this guy how to watch somebody else and learn from them, not that other people were impossible to read.

When Ivan finally arrived, the changeling had been waiting for some time, mainly because he'd come here exceptionally early. He glanced up and pocketed the pack of cards he had been fiddling around with.

"Alright, Sharpe... here's how this is gonna work. By the end of tonight, yer gonna be bruised, tired and not that much better at fightin... but yer gonna know how teh get better... I ain't gonna claim that it's gonna be quick. It took me three years... but in less than one, if yer real determined teh get good, yeh can become good enough teh have fifty untrained guys rush at yeh and have all of em unconscious on the floor without takin a single hit.,, course, then yeh'd be at the stage where yeh might just be able teh track the movements of those who are really good... so... let's get started, eh? If it's all the same teh you, I'd kinda like yeh teh attack me."
Ivan

Re: (CRP): Full Circle

Post by Ivan »

Ivan arrived as quickly as he dared, his steps and cautious as well as his gaze.

It was always best to be wary. After all, one never knows what might be around the corner. Every shadow of those place seemed as if it belonged to some creatures that was lurking just out of sight. For all he knew, there were. Maybe even some were shadows. It seemed as if any kind of being could exist here. There were some many beings, all coexisting... Honestly it was kind of odd. Everyone seemed to be a completely different race, no two beings being the same kind. Ivan had never seen anything like it.

Then again, he'd never seen all that much in his life so far. Just the same place, over and over and over again, for years. If he closed his eyes, he could almost picture it with how it was practically engraved into his brain. Could almost hear it too. The soft murmur of small talk in the morning, the crescendo of loud voices as more and more awoke. Of course, the same repeated in the night, when the nocturnal ones woke. One time, he'd been curious enough to stay awake through both cycles, only to be very disappointed to find them just about the same. Though... not all of the sounds had been the same. The typical distance sounds of creatures skittering about had dulled, and he had heard the night birds for the first time.

...It almost made him miss it, thinking of all the little sounds that made it what it was. Almost.

It had taken him a bit longer than he'd expected for him to reach the dueling arena, having gotten turned around and lost a couple of times, and he was mildly relieved to notice Alder there. It had been a stray thought, but it had occurred to him that it was entirely possible he wouldn't show at all. Luckily for him, he'd be wrong.

Or well, unluckily for him, with how Alder was describing things. Ivan shifted slightly from foot to foot, eyes on the ground as he spoke. Didn't sound like this was going to be fun for him, not in the least. He'd already known that it wouldn't be easier or quick, this wasn't anything new. Ivan didn't care. It'd be worth it, in the end... Not that it every would end. There is always someone stronger, always a reason to excel.

He gave a slight nod of agreement to the decision, at last looking Alder in the eye right before lunging at him, a clumsy punch with a fair bit of force behind it aimed for roughly around his shoulder.
Silence

Re: (CRP): Full Circle

Post by Silence »

Huh... the guy's motions gave Alder the strangest sense of Deja Vu.

Of course, when he'd swung at Reaver like that, he'd had a dagger up his sleeve, a dagger he had bought since the last time he'd seen the witcher and which he was using after making a show of throwing his first weapon away.

It hadn't worked, of course, but it was one more thing for Alder to consider as the shark toothed man rushed at him. Was there something that he'd failed to consider or was this really just a clumsy frontal attack?

A brief look across Ivan's face told the changeling all he needed to know. There was nothing being concealed here. There was no trick.

Well, that was one thing he could pick the guy up on already. Alder gauged how much power was behind the blow, then at the last moment swayed to the side, staggering half a step to his right and then grasping the man's hand for barely a moment before throwing it onwards, such that it's momentum carried him even further off balance. Almost simultaneously, he swept his leg out to catch Ivan's and placed his other hand on the guy's back, pushing forward. The result was that he utterly took Ivan's balance from him.

With his right hand, the one on Ivan's back, Alder grasped the back of his opponent's shirt and held him, stopping his face from slamming into the dirt. Just for good measure, he kicked the other guy's legs out from under him while holding him by the scruff of the neck, just to be sure he didn't get any ideas.

"Alright, let's start with what yeh did decently. Yeh got up an awful lot of momentum real quick and yer quite strong for a thin pale guy."

"Now... the thing is that yer unarmed. Just runnin and swingin is a trick which works with a large, heavy weapon that the enemy don't want teh get anywhere near. Yeh also put yerself off balance straight away. If yeh take yer own balance from yerself, then yer doin the enemy's work for em. If yer gonna put all yer strength behind one attack, yeh need teh make sure it connects or that the enemy's scared enough of it that they stay far enough away from yeh teh avoid an attack."

He pulled Ivan back to his feet and pushed him away from himself, then pulled a fairly plain looking axe from his pocket dimension and tossed it to the ground at Ivan's feet.

"If yeh were going for guarded movements and tryin teh work around the enemy's guard, I'd have yeh use somethin a little smaller, but that punch had a hell of a lot of swing behind it. Pick that up and try and hit me with the pointy bit, Sharpe. If yeh can hit me once, yeh can keep the weapon. The trick with those things is teh keep yer momentum constantly flowin from one swing teh the next. Ideally, yeh don't want teh have teh stop yer own swing and yeh want yer opponent teh stay well outside of range of bein able teh hit you."
Ivan

Re: (CRP): Full Circle

Post by Ivan »

Ivan had rushed at Vhagar before, doing exactly the same thing. It hadn't worked then and it hadn't worked now, either. ...Not much of a shock, really. When he'd done it then, he was just trying to figure out exactly how Vhagar would react to it all. It was an honest attempt, sure. He just hadn't thought it would honestly do much. ...It was easier to let your opponent come to you, in his opinion. Work off their mistakes. He just hadn't intended on saying anything against Alder's decision. He had no intention of arguing against one that was willing to train him.

He hadn't really expected to go down that easily, though. If he'd had a high opinion about his fighting skills, he might've been insulted. As it was, he was actually kind of relieved. It had been reckless of him to agree to learn from someone, not even knowing if they were skilled. And sure, he'd had a gut feeling, but that didn't make it any less reckless. It was good to see that Alder was quite skilled. Clearly, he hadn't made a mistake with this. What little pride he had was a necessary sacrifice.

It was with a keen ear that he listened to Alder's advice, not wanting to miss a thing.

Bit unsteady on his feet, he stared uncertainly down at the axe, picking it up cautiously. It was arguably heavy, but not that difficult to hold with his strength. It was a bit... odd, though, having a weapon in his hand. Sure, he knew other beings used them, but... Never were any of those, back where he came from. It took a couple of moments for him to even remotely get used to it in his hands, not wanting to rush forward with a completely unfamiliar weapon. Ivan really doubted that he'd land a hit at all, but might as well give a good try of it.

As he adjusted to it, he thought. With a weapon like this, coming at him from the front was definitely not the best of plans. Maybe more, to the side? At one of Alder's arms, maybe?

With a tight grip on the axe, he abruptly moved, aiming there with the swing.
Silence

Re: (CRP): Full Circle

Post by Silence »

((BTW, since this is in forum, I'm godmodding a bit... feel free to do the same and use the duel we had as a rough guideline... I know it was a bit one sided, but since you said you wanted to practice fight rps, I'm just saying that usually, when a duel is less one sided, you allow the other go godmod so long as they stick vaguely to what happened in the duel IG. If no duel happened IG, then it's a matter of 'improvise'.))

Alright... what was going through this guy's mind? Alder watched 'Sharpe' handle the weapon. The shark toothed man was clearly a lot stronger than he looked. Currently, that seemed to be his best asset in battle... but everybody started somewhere. Alder had started with his mind... others started with nimble fingers or an acrobatic way of moving around, or maybe just a sense of balance.

The changeling allowed himself to smile as he saw Ivan seemingly think through how to best use the weapon. Of course, he had no idea whether or not he'd be suited to axes, but it had been the first thing that had come to mind when he'd seen the man's strength. Still, the changeling waited, allowing his current student to adjust to the feeling of the weapon in his hands.

Then something changed. Ivan's expression changed from one of thoughtful consideration to one of resolve and his grip tightened.

That was more than enough for the changeling to know what was coming. Following Ivan's eyes, he figured out how the man intended to attack before he'd even finished his first step.

That actually... wasn't as stupid as Alder had expected him to be. Yes, it was a long way from 'clever', but it was clear that Ivan had actually given this some thought.

The changeling ducked away and spun on the ball of his foot to move towards the blow and under it. If he'd been fighting seriously, he would have thrown a dagger at Ivan while the momentum of the weapon carried him slightly out of position. It would have meant that he wouldn't have had to enter into his range either to do so... but that would defeat the purpose of this. Instead, the changeling backed off and let Ivan come at him twice more, the second and third times though, he pulled a wooden shield from his pocket dimension and took the blows on that.

Unsurprisingly, Alder, a fighter who tried to avoid blows rather than take them, had to adjust his weight both times to have any chance of not taking damage. Both times, he staggered two steps after the blow had hit his shield, pushed back by the blow.

The fourth time, Alder went towards Ivan, kicking up dust from the floor and then stepping behind it and swinging his shield around in an arc as if it was a weapon, meeting the swing of the axe half way and embedding it firmly in the wood. He yanked backwards and with his free hand reached for Ivan's neck, grasping it and pressing the taller man into the ground by his throat.

After two seconds, the changeling released his grip and offered his student a hand back to his feet.

"Alright... well, I suppose technically, yeh did hit me." He pulled the shield off of his arm and showed Ivan the thin line of blood where the axe had partially cleaved through the shield and bitten into his arm.

"The question is, what did yeh think of the weapon? Because if yeh liked the feel of it, we can move on... if not, it's probably best if we find somethin yeh feel more comfortable with... fightin unarmed is all good and well, but flash a weapon and half the time, people just back down... and it'll take yeh an awful long time teh get teh the point where yeh can beat even a novice with a weapon when unarmed... so, since yeh hit me, that thing's yers if yeh want it... if yeh don't, well then, we'll find yeh another weapon that suits yeh better. If yeh do, then I guess I better teach yeh how not teh kill people with these things."

Almost as an afterthought, he added.

"By the way, when yer in a fight, technically, anythin can happen. Somebody with no experience can take down a master if they have a trick up their sleeve. If yeh know yer opponent is better than you, don't try and outfight em... set a trap, hide a poisoned weapon, bite em or somethin... yer best chance is teh pull off something unexpected... even if it's real dangerous, if yeh really have teh fight em, then it could still be worth it. Hell, if you really have to tackle em off a cliff and then try and land on top of em rather than have em land on top of you, do it... or if yeh have teh let em impale yeh just teh stick em with the pointy end of somethin nasty, then it still might be worth it if yeh make sure they don't hit anythin important... against people who are better than you, the unexpected is yer best weapon. Against those worse than you, yer best off tryin teh keep the battle as predictable as possible while not givin em a chance teh do anythin expected."
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