All v One, and One v All [Open]

[Praetorum]

Date: 46th of Vhalar, Arc 720

Status: Readying to Roleplay

Weapons: Trident, Tower Shield

Armor: Platelike Leather

No Current Magical Effects

At some point, and he really wasn't sure how it had happened, Prae had become the go to mercenary for the newer knights and wardenlings and other less experienced Rharnians to spar with. They'd been the ones approaching him at first, but after a while, Prae found that more and more veterans were coming to him, asking to use him as a teaching aid for their students. 



Well, he had to admit it was sort of flattering, and he wasn't complaining. He'd often helped train the newer recruits in the legion, and there was something almost nostalgic about facing down younger fighters, two or three at a time. 



As it became clearer and clearer that Praetorum was both able and willing to help with just about any lesson they wanted to teach, the mentors of Storms Edge grew comfortable asking him to participate in more and more specific scenarios. 



Which was how they had ended up here.


"Just to be clear, you are aware that this is riskier than any of the other training exercises I've helped you with?"


The knight snorted, and gestured to the left side of his face, and the deep burn scar that swept across his cheek and jaw. "You don't need to tell me that; fighting against fire's going to be dangerous no matter what. But I'd rather not send them out into a real battle without experiencing it at least once, and this is the safest way."


Prae blinked, then sighed. "I suppose you're right. As long as you all understand the danger. I'm a damn good defier, but I'm not perfect; I can't watch over all of them at once."


"If it makes you feel better, I've managed to rope in a warden with one of those water spirits. She'll put out any fires that get out of hand."


It did make Prae feel better, actually, and he nodded appreciatively. "Do you want me to only use fire, or—"


"Nah, you can fight them however you like, as long as you also use that fire of yours. Fates know the Nickles will just as easily gore or claw you to death as burn you."



With that, the knight gestured, calling his two trainees forwards from the few people who'd gathered to watch. A pair of brothers that favored the sword and shield, Prae recalled; good teamwork, average reflexes, needed to work on focusing on the fight at hand instead of each other. 



"Right." The old veteran said gruffly, gesturing at Prae. "Praetorum here has kindly agreed to take on the role of a nickle for you to practice against." The brothers blanched, and the knight continued. "Just focus on trying to fight like you normally do while there's fire everywhere. Pay attention to how fire changes the battlefield and for Ilaren's sake don't just rush in; think about how you're doing to deal with the situation first. "



"Mind if I join in?" Prae glanced at the mercenary who emerged from the forming crowd, a biqaj woman who favored dual daggers. "I ought to figure out how to get in close to one of those flame bastards." 



The old veteran considered that for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. It'll do these boys good to know how to fight alongside strangers, anyways. And it'll make things more interesting for you, eh?"


Prae grinned sheepishly at that. He'd soundly beaten the two brothers before, and adding defiance into the mix would only make his advantage even more overwhelming. Adding in another opponent would make this just a little more fun. 



"Something like that." He raised his voice a little towards the onlookers. "Anyone else wanted to join in?"

[Elisabeth Black]

The young woman had been going about her trial, rather uneventfully, when she started to hear rumors of some special training being offered in the training hall. For just a trill, she thought about skipping out. She had already faced the flames before – not that she felt it gave her an excuse. But the reoccurring nightmares that haunted her every night were enough to give her pause. Sighing softly, she stopped in the hallway and took a moment to consider her choices. Elisa could – very easily- just not go. No one would be the wiser. She wasn’t a Lightening Knight, and her presence wasn’t being monitored – that she knew of.

But she would know, and in the end, it wasn’t something she could live with. Elisa had to confront the fears head-on so she could work through them…and then maybe the nightmares would stop.

Running to her quarters, she grabbed her leather armor, strapping it on as quickly as she could, and grabbed her gladius and sword belt. Moving quickly back through the corridors of Storm’s Edge, she managed to tie her dark hair back in something of a messy nest and arrived at the training hall just as a large group was forming. Interestingly enough, most of them weren’t dressed for fighting – just spectating. As she worked her way through the group, Elisa heard the instructions and comments, arriving just about the time the Ithecal asked if there were any additional takers. Not hesitating for a moment, Elisa stepped forward, meeting his gaze with hers of steely blue.

“I’m in.”

What more really needed to be said?

Her voice exuded much more confidence than she felt. Elisa had never trained with anyone other than Lore, Varlum and Vega...but she had two small advantages – she had seen the flame monsters before, and she had trained with Varlum enough that she knew a thing or two about how to fight an Ithecal. Even though he was a much better, more experienced fighter than she was, there were always weaknesses to be exploited.

She needed to go through the pain to get to the other side…so through the pain she went.

[Praetorum]

Date: 46th of Vhalar, Arc 720

Status: Probing

Weapons: Trident, Tower Shield

Armor: Platelike Leather

Current Magical Effects

Fire Caressed Trident and Shield

One more person stepped up—a woman with a sword who seemed on the younger side, but who at least appeared to know what she was doing. More interesting was the look she'd given him—the brothers were wary, the mercenary playful, but this one... the best word Prae could think of was resolute. 



Well, whatever their reasons or feelings, it didn't change what Prae had to do. As his opponents warmed up and prepared, the veteran knight approached, lowering his voice so they could speak privately. "If you don't mind, I'd like you to keep on the move while you're fighting. I know you're usually more of a hold your ground kinda guy, but my boys need to learn to think on their feet, and I want this exercise to make them work on their weaknesses." 



That, Prae could do. As the knight had noticed, leaping about wasn't his favored style of fighting, but his spark was delighted at the prospect, eager to get to move faster in a fight than normal. That was something else he'd have to be careful of—Flow was the spark he had most control over, but like an oversized barghest, it was easily excitable, and he'd have to be careful to moderate the strength of his flames.


With little more than a thought from Prae, his shield and trident both bloomed with fire, the flames coating and caressing them as Praetorum's behest. His tail uncoiled from his waist, and settled behind him, swishing back and forth as he waited to see which of his opponents would make the first move. 



As it turned out, it was the brothers, moving in sync to come and flank Prae from either side; not bad, since the trident Prae wielded didn't have the range of his quarterstaff. Normally, Prae would have backed up to keep them both in range, use his tail to entangle one of them—but not today. 



Today, he charged. Turning towards the brother on the right, Prae swept his tail behind his back, a wave of flame washing through the air between himself and the man at his back as he lunged for the other brother in a shield bash—one intended to fall a little short, but he doubted any of them would notice that. 



Sure enough, the man in front threw himself to the side to avoid Prae's attack, while the one behind hesitated instead of pressing the attack. Before he could steel himself for it, Prae leaped back towards the center of the training ground, and twirled his trident, slowly gathering flame along the end of it to see what they would do.

[Elisabeth Black]

Varlum had met the version of Elisa that was in the room at that moment. She was the one that he first became familiar with during the cavern mission – serious and focused. As she readied herself, her mind was whirling with possibilities. As the flames came to life, she resisted the urge to hesitate, her eyes quickly surveying the situation. She had fought against Varlum before, but he was bigger and his tail not as mobile. It was a new consideration Elisa had to include in her tactics.

Her mind settled as the brothers began their attacks. She personally would have called it ‘reckless’ the way they attacked but to each their own. Sometimes rushing in wasn’t the best course of action, especially with an attacker that was well-prepared and certainly much more experienced The problem was that the Ithecal had weapons capable of covering his front, sides, and back…which left precious little in the way of options.

She needed a misdirect. The brothers had banked on using each other for that purpose…and now she was going to use them for the same thing.

The brothers weren’t the most brilliant, but they were enough of a distraction. Running in before the Ithacal had a chance to set again, she feigned a direct attack, coming straight at him…but at the last minute adjusted, trying to avoid the flame at the same time, and leaped to his side, aiming her strike for his back without actually setting her feet. The motion of her strike required focused strength, starting at her shoulder in a downward pattern, and essentially backhand by the time she got there. Regardless if the strike hit, she immediately jumped back to stay out of range of the swirling fire that continued to threaten from all directions. While Elisa hoped she was successful, every encounter gave her more information.

[Praetorum]

Weapons: Trident, Tower Shield

Armor: Platelike Leather

No Current Magical Effects

The resolute human was the next to move, darting in for a daring, if ill conceived head on attack. Prae flicked his trident, the small ball of flame that had gathered there flying towards her feet— but before it even hit the ground the woman was leaping behind Prae, arm wound up for a swing at his side. 



The problem with leaping, Prae had long since learned, was that unless you were a defier, your path was both set, and predictable. Without looking, Prae moved his tower back behind him, and twisted his wrist, sending the bottom edge of his flaming shield swinging upwards to deflect the blow with a clang. The brothers had enough sense to realize that that meant Prae's shield wouldn't be in front of him for several precious moments, and came in for another synchronized attack, correctly reasoning that Prae's trident could only take one of them.


So Prae didn't engage them, bounding off to the side to reset his stance, only to find the mercenary had used the brothers for cover as she approached. With his shield still out of position, Prae stomped his foot instead, sending up a quick curtain of fire between them. Unfazed, the woman managed to duck in through the side—lightly singeing her hair in the process—and darted in, too close for Prae to use his trident effectively. 



Her dagger lashed out towards his neck, and Prae swayed backwards out of the way, using his tail to prop himself up, as he slammed his elbow up and into her ribs to knock her back. An air aided bounce backwards to get out of stabbing range, and Prae was able to steady himself again, ready for the next round of attacks. 



The brothers scowled in unison, and moved once more to flank Prae. Only this time, one of them gestured to the other two to join them and surround their enemy. Curious to see what they were planning, Prae let them, glancing to and fro to keep an eye on all four opponents.

[Elisabeth Black]

Grumbling softly as her sword hit the shield, Elisa retreated a step to stay clear of any fire. Fine. That plan didn’t work. The Ithecal had more weapons at his disposal than she had originally thought. While Varlum was a defier, he had never applied it against her in training, so fire and wind were a whole new element to work around. The fight was going to be a struggle for her, that was certain.

While considering her next move, something unusual happened. One of the brothers motioned for the others to join them in surrounding the target. Things had just gone from complicated to almost impossible. She was not trained in coordinated attacks at all…and there was a bigger issue of the fact that she had a very hard time trusting other people. Her entire life, to that point, had been learning to take care of herself. She wasn’t part of the order nor any group where her life was in someone else’s hands. The cavern mission had been a special situation and the type of coordinated skills being asked of her hadn’t been required then. Elisa wasn’t a huge fan of trust. Trusting people tended to be a disappointing experience for her.

Of course, there were some that had earned the wary young woman’s respect. Yet none of those people were currently in the room so that left her with a bit of a problem. Did she join the coordinated effort or keep trying to go it on her own? Sighing, she nodded and stepped up to flank the Ithecal, eyes waiting for some indication of what they were planning. Elisa was uncomfortable and wary of the whole situation, but she didn’t see that she had much choice at the moment. In addition, the whole point of the exercise, for her, was to learn and work through the pain she was going through. She wasn’t supposed to be comfortable.

[Praetorum]

Weapons: Trident, Tower Shield

Armor: Platelike Leather

No Current Magical Effects

Prae was pleasantly surprised to see all four of them were willing to cooperate, moving to surround him. Twirling his trident slowly, Prae picked a brother, and moved in towards him, curious to see what they would do. His flaming trident lashed out towards the man, and was parried away; a moment later, the human darted to the side to launch a quick attack at Prae's side. He blocked it easily, but as soon as he did the man was already back in front of him with another attack he parried with the butt of his trident, following up with a shield slam the human just narrowly avoided by jumping back. 



"Get close and lock him down!" The other brother called from behind Prae, and Prae glanced briefly over his shoulder, and lashed his tail at the approaching man's knees. He stepped forwards to try and move into a better position, but found the mercenary there, with a dagger in each hand; she tried to move in past the trident's effective range, but Prae stabbed forwards to force her away, then stabbed it backwards to deter the approaching brother. 



Locking off his mobility, and using fast attacks to keep him constantly moving and blocking so he couldn't launch a proper attack; not bad. Prae would normally have taken a blow to force his way out of the encirclement, but since he was fighting as a nickel today, he instead coiled his tail, and slammed it onto the ground, sending a pulse of flame radiating outwards from himself. 



The flames were tall and bright, but nearly paper thin, almost entirely harmless; the mercenary seemed to realize that immediately, leaping through the flames without hesitation to attack Prae, but one of the brothers hesitated, leaving a gap in the formation that Prae started towards.

[Elisabeth Black]

While she understood the reason why warriors trained to fight together, it added a bunch of unknown elements that she didn’t like. Elisa liked knowing what was going on around her – being aware of one’s surroundings. Unknown elements on the battlefield made her nervous and she had three of them currently.

She was starting to feel like it hadn’t been such a good idea to join…but one had to learn sometime.

Elisa’s quick assessment of the group was that the other three were too impulsive and when fire was in the mix, that was a very bad thing to be. Maybe one on one with someone who couldn’t employ magic but the extraordinary merited a bit more thought. Perhaps she was the one in the wrong. It was entirely possible considering she hadn’t been wielding a sword for long. However, Lore praised her mind and ability to break down situations and see them for what they were…and it was the only advantage she had.

The whole ‘get close and lock him down’ theory wasn’t going so well. At any point, the Ithecal could send fire in all directions and back the whole group up. Their only chance, in her opinion, was distracting him enough that someone could get a strike on him, but they couldn’t read each other’s minds. Elisa was beginning to think that her mind worked much differently than the other fighters’ present. Watching their attacks and noting all the failings gave her a few ideas though.

The fire he was employing wasn’t particularly dangerous. The mercenary had proven that. But for the one brother, it was enough to make him hesitate. That was her opening. Following the mercenary’s example, Elisa went quickly through the flame, just on the opposite side of the target, and swung towards his back. The further back on his body she aimed, the less time he had to swing the shield and block her attack.

[Vyto]

While not his preferred way to spend a day, Vyto was intrigued at the prospect of training with a veteran mercenary. Coming down from a meeting with one of his contacts, the mention of training with a Defiant Ithecal warrior piqued his interest and he had come to take a look at the event. Sure enough it had attracted quite the crowd as 4 brave volunteers stepped up to the challenge. He had heard word of the Mercenary, an Ithecal Defier more famous amongst the younger warriors. He too, had hoped to meet him sometime in the future.

Not particularly to spar, but to learn of Fire Defiance. The subject intrigued him greatly and this was a great time to do some research. As the fight began Vyto noticed the various fighters surrounding the bigger veteran, in the hopes of finding an opening to flank him. The two most referred to as brothers seemed eager to show their prowess, while the other two ladies seemed more reserved and calculating on their approach. Surely if they were to have any chance to overwhelm the mighty warrior they would need to make use of cooperation and teamwork. As they began dancing between attacks and dodges the Ithecal set some of his fire loose, creating a ring around him most likely to dissuade their encirclement. Vyto watched attentively as one of the fighters almost immediatly jumped through it, wondering if the barrier was indeed for defence or a more simple deterrance. What the Biqaj lady didn't seem to notice was the gap that was left by one of the brothers who seemed to take the flames much more seriously. The large Ithecal suddenly adjusted to take advantage of the opening, but the other lady seemed to be a step ahead: jumping in through the flames behind him and ready to strike at his blind spot.

The match had suddenly become far more intense than he antecipated, but what a prime situation to collect more knowledge. Vyto was starting to feel some form of eagerness swell up inside him as his mask took on a brighter shade of orange, and wondered how many rounds they would do. After all, some training was never a bad idea.

[Praetorum]

Even as Prae turned to try and escape the encirclement, one brother stepped in to cover the other's hesitation; it left his original spot open, but changing directions took a moment, and by that time the other had found his nerve and stepped up, the two of them closing off his escape by switching positions.


And then there was a human and a biqaj at his back with three blades between them, all of them slashing towards his back. Brothers in front prevented him from moving out of range; multiple enemies meant he couldn't afford to have his shield out of position. With a muttered curse, Prae pivoted to the right, swinging his shield around; Elisa's attack landed along his ribs instead of his spine, a dagger narrowly missed a gap in his armor, and a second dagger clanged off his shield.


"Two hits." Prae reported, swinging his trident to send a wave of flame towards the brothers; rather than back down, though, the two stuck close together, and charged through, hiding behind their overlapping shields in the world's smallest shield wall. The shields caught the brunt of the fire—though Prae could smell a little burnt hair—and then they were in Prae's face as well, simultaneously swinging their swords at him from either side.



The trident—just about any polearm, really—had a very specific range of effectiveness. Too far, and you had to overextend yourself to reach the enemy; too close, and you were doing little more than swatting them sternly with a stick. Prae knew a losing strategy when he saw one. 



So he discarded it. 



The flames along his trident vanished as he let go, and clattered to the ground beside Prae as he stepped in to meet the brother's attacks. The one from his left was easily blocked with his shield; the one at his right, not so much. 



A backhand swing aimed at his shoulder, with enough force that Prae would bruise even with his armor on; no space to avoid it, and whatever he did had to be quick because he still had two more enemies at his back. 



Prae's free hand swung up in an open palm chop at the knight's wrist, hard enough that the weapon flew out of his hand and skidded more than a few feet away as the man himself stumbled back a few steps. Would the knight break formation to grab his weapon, or face Prae bare handed, he wondered?


The answer turned out to be neither; instead, he snatched up Prae's trident, stepping back to within it's effective range. 



He was capable, but not experienced with the polearm, Prae judged; still, he thought it best to break free of this formation. Whirling around, Prae threw a fireball at Elisa's feet while whipping his flaming tail at the biqaj, trying to get them to step back so he could get some space.