• Solo • The Tournament, Part 1

[Doran]

Vhalar 21, Arc 720

“I still remember our first meeting very clearly”, Lida’via told Doran with her slightly husky voice. They were sitting on a wooden bench in the hallway outside one of the large sparring rooms that were located on the first floor of the Fitness Centre, waiting for the first round of the tournament that the Mortalborn had been invited to take part in to begin.

“You were watching one of my Menochoros classes in order to pass the time until the meeting that you had scheduled would begin. I noticed you almost right away. I’m glad that you decided to take me up on my offer of a training session. You progressed quickly. Of course, I won’t go easy on you just because you are a former student of mine if we end up fighting each other”, she added with a small grin.

“I don’t expect you to, and I don’t want you to, anyway”, the son of Ziell told the Sev’ryn in a calm and polite tone of voice. The expression on his face was serious, but there was a very light twinkle in his blue eyes. He valued Lida’via’s company, and he respected her skill in Menochoros. There had been a time when he had avoided forming connections with mortals because they aged and died so very quickly, but he had changed his mind in that regard – and he was glad that he had. Life was so much more enjoyable when it entailed more than spending countless breaks in a laboratory or a library, alone.

With that thought in mind, he momentarily turned his gaze away from the young mortal woman that was sitting next to him in order to watch the spectators that were arriving in larger numbers now. He was quite surprised that the tournament had attracted such a crowd, but he did not mind.

He was not nervous when he had to fight – or speak – in front of a large group of people. It seemed like an unnecessary kind of behaviour to him. This was an activity that he enjoyed, this was entertainment and not something that would have a major impact on the world of Idalos, with potentially far-reaching and devastating consequences, so why should he be nervous?

“I think that we should go in”, he decided and rose to his feet. Lida’via nodded in agreement and followed him through the door. Inside the sparring room, it was quite loud. The spectators that sat on benches that had been placed against the walls were talking loudly and wondering who would fight and who would have the best chance at victory; and the fighters, most of them trainers at the Fitness Centre, were involved in their own discussions.

The Mortalborn nodded at them politely before he walked to a bench that stood next to the door. He sat with his back straight and his arms crossed over his chest. Lida’via took a seat next to him, and together they waited for the first round of the tournament to begin – and for Ilani Toren of the Aurelian Order, the Great Teacher of Menochoros, an elderly Eidisi woman who would act as a judge of sorts as well as decide who was going to fight whom, to finally enter the room.

Notes

From the Viden Calendar:

21st: A tournament is being held at the fitness center of the academy. Everyone participating is trainers at the facility. Anyone can attend.

Doran was invited to take part in the consequence given in this review.

[Doran]

Menochoros was an unarmed combat style that had only been invented relatively recently, at least from the Mortalborn’s point of view. It had not yet existed when he had lived in Viden for the first time, approximately two hundred arcs prior. When he had returned to the northern city in 718, after a long time away, and started to train with Lida’via, he had been quite intrigued. Menochoros put a heavy emphasis on discipline and meditation, and understanding yourself, which were things that appealed to him.

The son of Ziell did not simply practice the moves that the Sev’ryn had taught him and repeat them faithfully though; he had already begun to adapt them – and incorporated Menochoros moves into his armed combat style as well. He wished to transform things and give rise to something new rather than relying on the tried and tested, both in regard to combat or through his alchemical inventions; and besides, playing to one’s strengths was an important aspect of Menochoros.

A name, Ryqet, had been called out alongside his name, he noticed, and he abruptly stopped his musings and rose to his feet with one swift motion. It seemed as if he would be given the questionable honor of going first (he did not mind the additional attention that he would receive because of that at all; going first had the distinct downside of not being able to observe the other fighters and familiarizing yourself with their fighting style though).

He moved to the center of the room without hesitation before he took a look around, furrowing his brow barely noticeably as he did so. Ryqet, whoever he was, did not seem to be present. He had most likely either been held up, or he had simply decided not to show up which was a questionable kind of behaviour in the Mortalborn’s opinion, especially since so much effort had seemed to have gone into the tournament’s organization.

After a moment of confusion, and a bit of muttering, both on the part of the audience and the staff of the Fitness Centre, another name was called out. Lida’via. The Mortalborn abruptly looked to his former teacher, raising an eyebrow slightly in the process as he wondered about the likelihood of what they had previously talked about actually happening. Lida’via met his gaze and smiled slightly before she shrugged her shoulders and moved forward, to the matted area in the centre of the room.

“Shall we begin, Doran?” the Sev’ryn woman asked in a slightly amused tone of voice once the signal had been given before she positioned herself directly opposite of him. The son of Ziell inclined his head sharply. For a few moments they stood there motionlessly, looking at each other, and then Lida’via advanced without a warning and finally executed a kick with her right foot, turning said foot slightly in the process which would allow her to cause damage over a larger area.

For the first couple of trills, the son of Ziell stood completely still and simply met his former teacher’s gaze, without flinching. When Lida’via had almost reached him, he swiftly moved out of the way of the attack and to the Sev’ryn’s side though, turning his torso slightly in the process. But a moment later, he lowered his left arm while he raised his right arm a little bit. Lida’via’s leg moved past him without connecting with his body.

He did not simply stop when he had evaded her attack though. He did not simply stand there and wait for the Sev’ryn to attack again. Instead, he immediately followed suit with a strike with his left hand while Lida’via was still on one foot and slightly imbalanced as a consequence, before he repeated the same attack with his right hand. The first attack met its target, causing the Sev’ryn to groan slightly. By the time that Doran executed his second attack, Lida’via had regained her bearings again, blocked it and moved away from him though.

But a few moments later, the son of Ziell and his mortal teacher stood facing each other in the center of the room once more. A few members of the audience cheered to them, but most of them were simply watching and waiting for the time being. The fight had barely begun, after all, there had only been a single round so far, and everything was still possible as a consequence. Whoever ended up on the floor first and did not get up again within a set timeframe, or submitted, would lose the fight.

[Doran]

Lida’via advanced once more. This time, the Sev’ryn executed a quick punch towards the Mortalborn’s torso that he blocked by raising his forearm before he pushed the mortal woman backwards. There had been a time when he would have been at least slightly reluctant to actually fight her – Lida’via was shorter and of a lighter build than he was – but he had discovered that she was more than capable of holding her own in a fight.

And besides, the combat style that they practiced was not about violence and aggression, but about improving and testing one's abilities against each other - and understanding yourself as well as your opponent.

Lida’via stumbled – for a moment, it actually looked as if she would fall and land on the floor, thus ending the fight mere moments after it had begun - but she regained her balance quickly, surprisingly quickly in fact.

A moment later, she already moved towards him once more. Her right arm shot forward – he succeeded in blocking that attack. Another round followed. Rather than pushing against him, Lida’via yielded to his force and pushed in the direction that he was pulling, a move that upset his balance for a moment before he regained his bearings.

When Lida’via realized that he was still standing, and that her plan had only worked partially, at best, she moved backwards again, her arms raised in front of the upper half of her torso torso and her face, to protect herself as much as to be ready to strike again, should the opportunity present itself.

They were, the Mortalborn observed, more or less evenly matched when it came to their skill in unarmed combat – he might even be the slightly better fighter now – but Lida’via’s had more experience than he had, and her lighter build provided her with an advantage. He possessed some basic familiarity with acrobatics and could maintain his balance most of the time now; he could not move exactly like her though. He managed to land several more hits over the course of their fight, but no matter what he did, Lida’via always seemed to quickly move outside the range of his attacks again.

She was constantly moving and possessed the mutability of water, like a true practitioner of Menochoros should.

The Mortalborn would never let something like that discourage him though. He had already come up with a plan. There was something that would help him gain the upper hand for good and ultimately win the fight. In Menochoros, it was important to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. He would never be as fast as Lida'via, in part due to his physical build, but there was something that he could do.

[Doran]

The crowd cheered again, louder this time, for Lida'via who was one of the Fitness Centre's own instructors and for Doran, an alchemist and professor of some renown; and they talked, about who of them would win the fight. The Mortalborn paid them no mind at all. His entire attention was focused on the Sev'ryn opposite of him who looked at him somewhat questioningly before she attacked once more, with renewed determination.

This time, the Mortalborn did not execute a single counterattack after he had blocked Lida’via’s attack, but mixed up a couple of different attacks in order to make them harder to predict and counter, and used his hands, his forearms and his knees in quick succession. He did not always extend his arms fully when he attacked. Sometimes, he extended them just a little. Menochoros was about understanding both yourself and the one that you fought.

Over the course of the bits, Doran had not only fought Lida’via, he had also paid close attention to how she fought. His former teacher was fast, sometimes she was in fact very fast. She had a tendency to always move just outside his range after she had attacked, just far enough that he would not be able to reach her before she closed the distance again.

He had decided that the best course of action would be to make it harder for her to tell how far she had to move away from him – and when the best way to move away from him again would be.

His plan did not work right away. For a little while, they continued just like before, never really gaining the upper hand over each other, but eventually, after another series of strikes on his part, the Sev’ryn reacted just a trill too late. He quickly moved forward. He did not simply attack Lida’via, but grabbed her wrist instead and pulled her towards him before his free hand shot forward. Most fighters needed to swing their arms and generate momentum.

He didn’t though.

He was not as fast as some other fighters, but he could attack at extremely close distances effectively. A moment after he had pulled her towards him and struck, Lida’via landed on the ground. He kept her there just long enough for the count to end, using just enough force. He wanted to win this fight, especially now that he was so close, but he did not want to injure her or cause her more pain than necessary.

As soon the count had ended, and people started to cheer once more, he let go of her, extended a hand and helped her up. She took his hand without a moment of hesitation and rose to her feet, taking a deep breath as she did so. “You’ve come a long way, Doran”, she remarked, smiling lightly. “I did not think that you would be able to defeat me. I expect you to join one of the orders before long”, she told him as they walked away from the matted area in the center of the room so that another pair of fighters could begin.

They sat down on their bench again – he noticed that the Sev’ryn was a little out of breath now.

He was just pleasantly warm on the other hand. At this point in time, it took more than just one fight for him to be in any way exhausted, although he would without a doubt be a little sore at the end of the trial.

“I almost didn’t”, he replied in a deep and calm tone of voice, referring to her statement that she had not thought that he would be able to defeat her. “As for joining an order, I will consider it”, he continued and inclined his head before he turned to watch the next fight. The practitioners of Menochoros were organized in different orders. So far, he had felt no need to rise through the different ranks. He practiced Menochoros in order to balance out all the mental work that he engaged in due to his being a professor first and foremost.

The idea to do more – and eventually teach this art to others – was not without appeal though.

[Praetorum]

Doran

Points: 10
Magic: No
Skill Review: Appropriate

Knowledges
Acrobatics x1
Unarmed Combat (Menochoros) x5

Loot: None

Injuries: None

Renown: +10 points for publicly winning a match against a fitness center instructor


Overview
It’s always super neat to see the fighting style of different PCs. Doran is very patient and methodical even in the heat of combat, and can analyze his opponents on the fly, which definitely gets his personality across very well. I’m keen to read the rest of the threads in this series. Lets see if Doran can pull through and win this whole thing!

Word Count: 2586 Words