Strong to the weak; weak to the strong. It was something disapproving parents said of playground bullies, and disgruntled clerks of their officious supervisors.
It was also, with a slightly different and more technical meaning, an important principle for how to work from the bind in pole arm fighting. Because of the length of such weapons, it was common for two opponents to meet in a bind with significantly different leverages. In such cases, the rule of thumb was that the opponent with the stronger leverage should lean into that advantage, seeking to drive the opponent’s weapon even farther out of line to create an opening. The “weak” opponent, by contrast, should not try to contest that push directly, but rather yield to the strong, in a way that still enabled them to redirect their own weapon off the bind to advantage. It was crucial in binds to recognize quickly whether one was strong, weak, or equal, and then to decide promptly and act decisively.
Balthazar was the “strong” in this case; the point of the bind was closer in to his lead hand, and to his credit, the Yari did the right thing trying to press his edge in leverage to get Oram’s weapon out of the way. The hunter guessed that long sword fighters learned similar techniques.
Oram, being the “weak”, had less power at the bind but more movement off of it. He let Balthazar push, yielding and stepping back while allowing his own spear point to drop as well as move outward. Then, with a quick oar-like pivot, he rotated the weapon under Balthazar’s lead arm and then came back in for a thrust at his midsection. He had expected his opponent to perhaps bring his own weapon back in with a chop; he had not been expecting a kick.
A kick didn’t make much sense in the Chief Ranger’s mind, if the goal was to connect with his gut. Unless Balthazar’s leg were five feet long, that wasn’t going to happen. And it didn’t. When the Element’s foot extended, it did not strike Oram’s midsection. It struck his lead hand, just as Oram’s spear point connected with Balthazar’s own midsection, which drove the tip skidding up across the black plate along the sternum.
”Ow!” shouted Oram, and then he shouted some other things as well, because being kicked in the hand hurt. He raised that hand quickly and stepped back, gesturing that he wished to break off. Before he did any more fighting, he needed to make sure his hand was all right. Getting knocked around in a spar might be great training, but being well-trained didn’t matter if you’d broken all your fingers.
Oram withdrew to his "corner" and leaned his spear on his shoulder while he examined and flexed his hand. The scale armor he had summoned had mitons which covered the back and palms, and he was wearing fairly heavy leather gloves that protected the rest of his fingers. His bones, due to his connection with Faldrass, were supposed to be extremely tough, as well. He would see about that. The traveler flexed and examined, flexed and poked, until he was certain he had nothing wrong worse than some bruising. Satisfied, he looked up at Balthazar, and signaled that he was ready to continue, should the Yari wish.
Assuming he was, Oram would ready his spear and wait for the next attack. It usually wasn’t a good idea to be passive in a fight, but Oram didn’t know a lot of fancy offensive tactics, and he was guessing that Balthazar did. Perhaps letting him try some would give the Chief Ranger a chance to learn a few things. He had already absorbed one important lesson: just because you were fighting with spears, didn’t mean that your opponent would only ever use his spear.
Villains are powerless against story beats.
