• Closed • Call the shots, name the price

[Faith Augustin]

14th Vhalar, 716
On the boat

E

ither through luck or judgement, or perhaps due to a lack of one or both, Faith knew most of the people on the boat. Not all of them, there were a few that she had not met, at least in passing. But there were a couple who she was much more likely to stop and chat with, who she was fond of and Aeon (or Fred, as she knew him) was most certainly in that category. So, once she and Padraig had gone on a weapon-hunt and she had found a sword and a long dagger. Neither of them were particularly good quality, but they were good enough that she could get some practice in with them.

Turned out, after asking, that Padraig wasn't kidding when he said he needed to practice with the sword "So you have that thing but have no idea how to use it? Remind me never to hire you as a surgeon based on you holding a scalpel" she had said with a smile. But her thanks to him for helping her look had been very genuine and then, when they were back up top she spied Aeon and she spoke to Padraig, checking that it was still acceptable to him that she should introduce them and ask him to train them a little. She did warn him, beforehand, just in case he was not aware of it from the fact that Aeon wore a cloak. "He has one hand and one eye. He lost their partners in the battle when the city was attacked by the rebels following the death of Velijorn Burhan and the decimation of the Qe'dreki army" she smiled a tight-lipped smile which held no humour and looked rather tense, but said no more.

However, once they had rummaged around downstairs, they had gotten back above decks and there was Aeon, standing and looking out over the water with what seemed to be a rather gloomy expression on his scarred face. She gave Padraig a smile and encouraged him to come with her, then when they were close enough, she spoke "Good trial to you, Fred" she said, her voice soft and with her usual friendly manner. "How did we find ourselves here? This is Mister Padraig, my tutor and this is Sergent Aeon, of the skyriders" she said, with a smile to the two of them.

"I wondered if perhaps I might ask a favour of you" she said to Aeon and she spoke to him with an earnest expression "Both of us find ourselves in a situation where we are not at all skilled in the weapons we carry" and in fact, she looked like she might be about to squirm out of the armour she was wearing, come to that. She managed to pull off the look of a little girl who had raided the dressing up chest remarkably well, considering how well the armour fitted her. "And I know that your skill is much greater than both of ours put together. I would like to increase both our chances of surviving this and so I wondered if you might help us learn?" she asked, and then quickly added "But please, only if you are not busy" because she did not wish to be rude. Immotals forfend, after all!

[Padraig]

If Faith was familiar with many of the others on board, Padraig was at a distinct disadvantage in that regard. He knew no one else but her. And if it was a sort of friendship beyond tutor and student that was developing between them, brought on by happenstance and proximity as much as anything, it was an unexpected one that he hadn't foreseen. Nevertheless, their search below deck had turned up several weapons for her, and a decent knife that he'd picked up along the way and brought with him.

"I've got a little shadowbeast stabbing experience," he argued dryly. "Surely that counts for something? So, the man they were to meet had lost both his hand and his eye honestly, in the heat of battle. Padraig had never assumed anything else, but neither would he have asked. The knowledge was welcome though. It was history, and insight. And when they approached her friend and Faith introduced them, Padraig nodded in greeting, in spite of Faith's way of addressing him. "A pleasure," he said to the other man, and then smiled just a little. "No mister necessary. Please, just Padraig." Him saying so, was for Faith's benefit too, not just Aeon's.

'She's right," he added then, "if it's not too great an imposition? My skill is such with the blade that if I didn't know better, I'd think that the immortals had a unique sense of humor." Indeed, while he appeared comfortable enough in the fine leather armor, having worn it long enough to adjust, Padraig didn't quite seem equally at ease with the weapons at his side.

[Aeon]

After the sparring match with the University teacher, the young sergeant didn't feel like going inside with the most of the passengers. Some of them went inside to have fun with others, some to eat, some to rest, some to get drunk because of the stress, and as much as he could relate to all of those reasons, Aeon could not make himself walk inside. He felt like he didn't deserve it. It was a ship filled with men and women that could not protect themselves against another mortal, much less these endless shadow beasts, or even the Immortals. How could he relax knowing that if all of these souls which did not have the training necessary for the mission, died under him, a man that had training.

He observed the tidal waves in the distance play the mating game, as they competed to achieve dominance over one another and take the favor of the endless ocean for themselves. One would just start winning, when another, younger, and more skilled wave would overcome it, and take the lead position in the tireless dance for just a couple of trills, before the process repeated itself. It was not much of an entertaining thing to watch, but it let Aeon rest, it let him run from his own thoughts, but just as always, there was someone or something to remind him where he belonged.

"Hi Velma, and just Padraig." The young one chuckled as he followed up on the man's instructions. Unlike just a trill ago, Aeon was smiling honestly and like a child, making someone nearly forget the large bulk of red meat across the left side of his face, as well as the missing left hand and eye. Now that he thought of it, Velma nearly never even seemed to notice the scars on his face, or she just went pass them without issues.

"I have been thinking that ever since I saw the band they put together today." Aeon said, while walking a few steps away from the edge of the boat, leaving the waves of the tides somewhere far away to their own dances and games, it was time the young man played his own. The answer was in regards to the sense of humor of the Immortals just Padraig mentioned, as the young man tried as hard as possible to remain simple and happy in front of the others. It would most definitely not help the morale to outright say what he was thinking. They were all summoned as scapegoats, completely randomly..

"Alright, I'll teach you. I don't think I could stand the guilt of letting you two die just because of your poor skill." It was a joke, a simple, bad joke, one that could be mistaken for the actual truth very easily, mostly because it was based around it. Truly, Aeon was already struggling with the guilt from all of the deaths the Immortals had caused just by inviting all of those people on the ancient ship. "Firstly, I'd like to know what you both already know." Now, training a single person from the beginning was a hard task, and Aeon barely managed it last time, but training two completely blunt individuals at the same time? That seemed impossible, so with the few trills he got before the man and woman before him started talking, he continued on.

"But, since we are on a sort of a clock here, and have only so little time before reaching Ne'haer, I could not teach you proper techniques from the beginning, so we'll just have to improve as we go. For starters, if you would both draw your weapons." With a swift motion of his right hand, Aeon untied the knots which bound the sheathe of his blade to his leather armor beneath his cloak, and brought the sheathed longsword in the air. "I want you to give your best to kill me. And before you ask, I mean it. Do whatever you know, however you know it, to strike me down, and once you fail, we'll know what to improve on." He smiled, much more lightly than a person in his position should be. He had one eye, one hand, and a sheathed blade, versus two healthy individuals with sharp edges. Having confidence is half the battle already won, or so Aeon thought. "And if you succeed, well, we'll know that you were ready for the shadows after all, and I wasn't."

[Faith Augustin]

H

e said yes and Faith smiled at him gratefully. He was right, also, in that she did not care about the scars on his face, the missing eye or anything like that. It wasn't that she didn't see them, of course she did, but she just genuinely didn't care about them. Not at all. He was Aeon who she called Fred and he had helped her. She was responsible for him, in many ways, and she knew that he felt the same about her. How strange it was, she considered, what guilt over something you were not responsible for could do to you. "Thank you" she said with a smile "You are most kind Fred"

And as for what she knew? She considered it and she shrugged slightly "I think this is the first time I have lifted a sword. But I have used a long dagger a few times now, both in training and in a fight or two. Once only in a real fight and with the blade, the other time I was hitting someone on the head with the hilt" she blushed a little at that ~ it had been her owner's twin after all in a very messy situation which she was sure they did not need to go into here.

Then, there was the instruction. It was clear, it was precise and she frowned. But then he insisted. Do what they knew. She glanced at Padraig and he motioned for her to go first and so, she did. She pulled the sword and the knife and she held them, one in each hand. She felt the grip and she felt the weight. Lifting the sword, she felt how it was in her hand. But Faith didn't know how to use them, so she stepped forward and kicked him, hard, between the legs. Her skill in unarmed combat was much better, she knew, than her skill with a knife or a sword, so she did what she knew and then, if he had fallen forward as was her aim, she struck him on the back of the head with the hilt of the knife with the aim of knocking him out.

If he stopped her kick, of course, that second bit didn't happen, but that was her plan.

Off Topic

She is competent at unarmed with a skill of 30. Her blade knowledges include the butt of the knife strike. I'm sorry. He told her to do her best so she did! She's very obedient!

[Padraig]

If Padraig had noticed the scars and other physical monuments to battles past, and he had, he seemed to make nothing of it. Not by expression, comment or deed. He wasn't ignorant to the appearance of others, or unobservant. And when it came to women in particular, he was young, healthy and like any other man, not immune to a pretty face, curves or wiles. But in general where it concerned others, anyone really, the young man was more interested in character, and what was between the ears.

And in this case, the man opposite them appeared more than capable of defending himself, which could only bode well for Faith and himself, was Aeon, or Fred, willing to teach them. Though he might argue that guilt concerning those whose skills were less than sufficient and who'd been silly enough to get on this ship anyway without thinking it through, might be considered emotion wasted on the foolish. But that was a cynical view, and Padraig only toyed idly with cynicism, now and again. He'd teach them something, and Padraig was grateful. "Thank you," he said, and he meant it.

What did he know of the sword? "Not much, to be honest. I've drawn it a time or two, and have run it through a shadowbeast once. I'm better with my fists and feet, and dancing round my opponent," Padraig admitted. Unarmed combat, which meant that while he was probably as much a danger to himself as to others with a blade, he was steady on his feet, was flexible and quick to move when necessary.

But he didn't argue when Aeon suggested they should attempt to kill him, so to speak. So far as Padraig was concerned, the man was in no danger of him running him through anytime soon. You first, his expression was enough to say, when Faith looked his way. Though observant as he was as he stood back, he hadn't expected her to do what she did. And in honesty, as her foot made contact with the other man's groin, or even if it didn't, the attempt alone was enough to cause Padraig to flinch and wince. Call it a knee jerk, sympathetic response, for that's what it was, man to man. Never mind her move to put him out of his misery, after the deed was done. A little bit of him thought that if such a move was successful, on this or another unsuspecting male, the knock on the noggin would be a kindness.

Padraig glanced aside at her, raised a brow and said dryly, "Remind me not to cross you during our next chemistry lesson." Now he could have opted for fighting dirty, if she'd somehow managed to topple Fred, and made a show of finishing him off while he lay curled on the deck clutching his groin. But instead he waited, whether it was to allow Aeon to collect himself, or instead tell her what she'd done wrong. And when it was his turn, Padraig staggered his stance a little, not unlike he would had he been brawling instead. A little spring in his, flexibility in the knees and he reached and drew his blade from left to right in one motion, smooth or no, intending to complete an arc while stepping in to slice his opponent at an angle, stem to stern.

Off Topic

Unarmed Combat - 30

[Aeon]

Fortunately for the young one, the slave and her friend did not seem, or at least did not say anything that would show it, bothered by his request. Whether they knew they couldn't actually kill him, or they simply didn't care if they did, was their thing, and Aeon did not mean to go into their personalities like some sort of detective or whatnot. Mistake one, splitting up. The sergeant thought as he saw the man signal for Velma to go first. He was a superior opponent, and all they could do with going one by one was get themselves killed. Huh, well, that's why they need lessons, right? A brief thought crossed his mind as Faith drew her weapons.

Aeon was prepared to block the attack, handling his unsheathed blade lightly and gently, for it was not a weapon for killing at this moment, and he did not need that perfectly stern grasp on it to simply block an attack made by a girl. The attack was, unfortunately for the poor lad, unblockable by any weapon known to man, and it landed, causing several heated waves of pain to go straight through his body and back to his groin. It was truly a strike below the waist, but he needed to expect as much. At least the following attack from her dagger was predictable, and without many issues, well, with a lot of issues, mostly between his legs, Aeon managed to dodge the woman's weapon.

Sure, the pain of the kick was excruciating, and so incredibly painful, and most men would not be able to stand correctly after it, but the young sergeant wasn't most men. Most men weren't tossed around like a chewing toy by a thousand pound' beast and then thrown into a stone building. Most men would not have their hand bitten off right before they had a building fall all over them. Most men would not have ran through a lake that burned like the fires only Immortals could make. Aeon had faced the embodiment of horror and pain, and lived to fight another day, Velma's kick wasn't going to stop him, not today.

Just as the hilt passed his chest, the skyrider pulled his sheathed weapon straight towards Faith, more slowly than he would've done it usually, considering the pain was still unbearable, but most likely with enough speed to strike her briefly on the hip on the side at which her arm had still not returned from its journey with the knife. "I should have seen that one coming, well done, but just so you know, those shadow monsters, they're not going to stop after you kick 'em in the nuts." And as he had finished the sentence, he noticed the other man preparing his own attack. Just a couple of trills, it was all the rest he needed, stupid pain wasn't going away. Why wasn't it going away, for all the shit of mighty Rynmere.

Still, he managed to see and block the man's fast-paced attack just fine, even though things behind him and Velma were indeed quite blurry. It'd go away once the pain did, Aeon reassured himself. "Now you, two things. Don't ever, ever, ever, split up your attacks when facing a stronger enemy. If you attacked at the same time your partner did, there was no way I could've dodged both attacks." He smiled as he drew his sheathed blade closer to himself once more. The leather sheathe had received a small cut, one that could be repaired easily at the barracks, so Aeon usually wouldn't have worried. But who knew when he was going to get back to the barracks? "Also, your attack was quite predictable, do what you're good at. Dance around me, and strike briefly and lightly. You know, my.. my mentor once said that the blade is just an extension to your body, use it that way. Where you would kick, slash from below, where you would punch, thrust straight and quick." Mentor..the word made him stop in his tracks for just a piece of a trill, and even though Ryqos was long gone, the young sergeant still had hopes of seeing him again. Just the way the old man danced while he battled, and the way he used his sword, it was just so magnificent, graceful. Just the perfect rapier style, Aeon yawned briefly.

"All right, again." He motioned with his sword for the two to come at him once more, and until he felt that they stood a good chance of beating him, he would continue on with this. Learning is based around the new, but practicing is all about the repetition. When you practice, you don't set a time for it, you simply practice until there isn't more to be practiced. Until you have repeated something enough times to turn it into reality at any time, any place, and any given situation. So much of his old mentor lingered on, so many quotes, so many moves, and just too many habits for the old man to be forgotten so easily. Never again.. He murmured in his mind right before the next round began, and even though the pain was still in his body like some sort of parasite, Aeon could live alongside pain. It was that guilt, the guilt of sentencing his own mentor to death, that really troubled him.

[Faith Augustin]

S

he held, in one hand, a sword and in the other a long knife, the sort which she believed was called a gladius. Within moments of starting, Faith realised that she was much more comfortable with the long knife-gladius thing. It was smaller, it suited her physique and it wasn't so heavy that her arm shook holding it. When Fred's sword hit her, Faith realised that not only was he quicker, normally, but she was also slowing herself down by having both weapons, one of which was downright unweildy. She was pleased that she had landed her kick (blissfully unaware of just how painful that was as she was) and she considered his words. "Yes, you are correct, I imagine. Point taken."

Then, she put aside the blade with a nod to Fred and a raised eyebrow to Padraig "I can not imagine that I would ever strike you unless instructed to, but if you wish", she responded seriously and she watched the two of them as Padraig and Fred/Aeon sparred, again very briefly. Fred had words for both of them and Faith considered carefully. It made good sense, that they should not have split their attacks. It seemd only polite, to be honest, but then she supposed that polite wasn't really what they were going for here.

Again Aeon said (although she objected to her attack being predictable, but she decided that he meant Padraig's). So, with an awkward-seeming glance at Padraig, that was what she did. It was much more comfortable with just the one knife, lighter and more able to be used the way she wanted to use it. The thing that Faith realised quite quickly, as she bumped into Padraig with a "Apologies" was that this was not about just her. It was about Aeon and where he was and Padraig and where he was. The first few strikes, she thought, they were working in parallel, perhaps, but not together. She stopped and frowned slightly. "We are not collaborating. Not working together. We are just not working one then the other." Thinking about it, Padraig was taller than her, his weapon had a longer reach; it made sense, therefore for him to attack using that strength and her to attack in places where he was not attacking and in ways he was not. She was smaller, so Faith started to try and move with him, where he attacked high, she went lower and when he sliced, she stepped in and stabbed.

Always, her first consideration was Aeon, where he was and how she could exploit any weaknesses in his stance, but the addition of them working together was something which she felt was very much a positive. She wondered if Padraig had been trying to do that from the beginning and it had just taken her a while to catch up or whether, in fact, he'd had to learn that as well.

[Padraig]

For Padraig, the answer of whether or not he could kill the man was simple. Just from the look of him and the way he carried himself, he was a skilled fighter to the same extent that Padraig was not. The young man had no idea that he couldn't regardless. But it hardly mattered. Had it happened, it would require an extremely lucky, or rather unlucky string of events for it to happen at all. Blades were sharp after all, even science had it that in spite of a thousand strokes failed, only one needed to succeed. Inadvertent or no. In either case, he'd care very much.

All that aside, the lessons were needed. He'd handled his sword, to now, only twice. He'd been lucky once, clumsy the second time. There was plenty of room for improvement. And ultimately, Aeon must have meant that the separate blade attacks were predictable, and not the kick to the groin.

As for combining their attacks, his first impulse had been that it wasn't sporting. Nor was it polite to strike a man while he was already down. But he knew, if he was to learn, if either of them was to learn, they couldn't afford to view current company as an ally or friend. Battle against genuine foes after all, war, both were messy and bloody. Not polite or sporting. He'd have questioned on impulse whether shadowbeasts actually had nuts. But they were about more serious business here.

"Point taken," he agreed when Aeon corrected them both. So if she was going to strike low due to her shorter stature and shorter blade, then it only made sense for him to strike, or slash high. His feet were also a weapon, of sorts; and a little unarmed combat experience meant that they could serve him well. From his perspective, it was better to strike from two different angles, forcing their opponent to divide his focus between them. So sword in hand, he pivoted to the side, assuming that Faith would take his cue and move at the same time, and swept his blade up towards Aeon's flank.

[Aeon]

Practice makes perfect, and it was not the case only for the two of his students, but for Aeon as well. The more he got to use his sword with a single hand, the faster he got. Of course, it would take quite a bit of time for him to reach the level he would've had with both hands, but with enough practice of this kind of caliber, he could do it.

The two of them were now collaborating on defeating their common foe, and so it went from child's play to a true battle for the young sergeant. He focused on each attack as if it was a fight to the death, and attempted to constantly dodge more than he blocked, but even with his skill, he couldn't avoid every one of their attacks. It was usually Velma's attacks that were dodged, and Padraig's that were blocked, simply because of their weapons and positions. There would be no chance of quick movements if Aeon had to lower his sword to block the woman's quick and thin blade each time, and so the slashing, bigger weapon would've got him. Trill by trill, they advanced quickly on him, and it was simply a matter of time before the scarred man's body couldn't move at the pace that the two of them made.

A clash of blades was sudden as a shot from a cannon, and Aeon found himself barely in between Padraig's sword, which was now bound by his own, and Faith's gladius that went just next to his stomach. Flanking was a great strategy made by the man, and the skyrider could only smile and be proud of the way they organised it. Still, it wasn't their game, their rules, nor their music, it was Aeon's. Just as the weapons of the two young men were about to part ways, the blond boy lowered his stature, and using his left arm, which was left hanging for the better part of their training, went for the man's stomach. His elbow first, followed by the rest of the arm, with the air that was once filled by his hand coming last.

If his punch was to succeed, Aeon would sweep his blade in Faith's direction, letting it stop just as it hit her shoulder. The punch, nor the hit with the blade would've been enough to knock them unconscious, or cut through their skin, but just enough to show the weak spots. A gladius was great for offense, but it wasn't exactly a defensive weapon, so a horizontal sweep wasn't exactly stoppable, unless the woman reacted right before the sweep even began. Of course, even if the punch in the stomach hit Padraig, by the time Aeon had got to Faith, he was open for any attack from his left side coming from the other man. As good as he was, the skyrider wasn't perfect in his swordsmanship nor planning, and he was bound to make such a mistake eventually. So, there would have been multiple variants of the lessons coming from him after it was over, one way or the other. (of course, there wouldn't be any words if Padraig just killed him) "That was good, way better than before. Try to change your attacks mid-air, going from a thrust to a slash, and the other way around, it'll catch your opponent off guard. Again." Even if he was hit by Padraig's blade, so long as he could move, their practice would be continued.

If his punch failed, that would have been a whole different story then, since it would mean Aeon was likely to lose within trills. There were so little ways he could get out of a situation like that one, the young skyrider would've simply said it was enough, and that he lost. A legendary fighter could've pulled out of that situation with a slice alongside Padraig's arm, perhaps even a kick in Faith's direction, but Aeon still had to learn lots to reach that level. "That was good, really good. Now, if you would switch weapons, we'll go again." A selfish person that couldn't carry a loss on their shoulders would've said this only to gain more chances of beating the two of their opponents, and yet Aeon wasn't that person. This was simply an exercise to make sure the two could have the same synergy when not carrying their weapon of choice. "You two are fighting together, so switching weapons between each other shouldn't cause much of an issue. Where we're going, it's best to be prepared for anything." Even though he had no clue where they were going, he knew that there would be shadowbeasts, and where there were shadowbeasts, anything might happen, and he wasn't going to let these two go unprepared. "Again."

[Whisper]

Aeon

Peer Review

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Armed Combat: Two Attackers
Armed Combat: Blocking and Dodging
Combat: Prepare for Anything
Pedraig: “Fred”?
Pedraig: Tutor
Practice: Repetition
Unarmed Combat: Fighting Dirty

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
None	[/color]xxxxxx	Minor bruising, healed without treatment within 7 trials
	[/color]xxxxxx	Potential infertility?!? [/color]

Faith

Peer Review

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Armed Combat: Blade is an Extension of the Body
Armed Combat: Brief and Light Strikes
Armed Combat: Switching Mid-Attack
Combat: Collaboration with Allies
Combat: Exploiting Weaknesses
Combat: Prepare for Anything
Combat: Simultaneous Attacks
Unarmed Combat: Aim for the Sensitive Bits
Unarmed Combat: Fighting Dirty

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
1 Longsword	[/color]xxxxxx	Minor bruising, healed without treatment within 7 trials[/color]

Pedraig

Peer Review

Story: 5/5
Collaboration: 5/5
Structure: 5/5

Awarded Knowledge

Aeon: Sergeant
Aeon: Skyrider
Armed Combat: Blade is an Extension of the Body
Armed Combat: Brief and Light Strikes
Armed Combat: Switching Mid-Attack
Combat: Collaboration with Allies
Combat: Not Polite or Sporting
Combat: Prepare for Anything
Combat: Simultaneous Attacks
Unarmed Combat: Fighting Dirty

Extras

Loot & Losses	[/color]xxxxxx	Injuries
1 Longsword	[/color]xxxxxx	Minor bruising, healed without treatment within 7 trials[/color]

Comments

This was a good thread... Faith seemed far to calm o.O is she aware of what she's walking into?!
Felt a bit rushed at the end there, but still thoroughly enjoyed it; it was more than just mindless combat which is always nice!
Wasn't sure about what type of sword to award - my knowledge of weaponry is terrible! Lemme know if it needs to be changed.

As you can see, I have provided feedback and reasoning behind my review. If you have any questions, comments or criticism about your review, feel free to send me a PM and we can discuss it.
Thank ye.