Flashback The Duelist

[Brossk]

Timestamp: Summer, 56, 504

Brossk, only a year after his tragedy, stood in the middle of a field surrounded by geysers gushing forth scalding hot water. No fear, nothing to lose, defending another man's honor with his blade. But not just any man, it was a squabble among Akalak friends. The client did not want to fight his turning of age friends over a difference in honor perspectives. This is where Brossk came into the picture.
A sword for hire, someone to settle scores or die trying. This was the life Brossk chose at this point. He wanted someone, or someone's to end his misery. He now waits for 3 Akalak.

Time passed and impatience made it feel like hours. He had with him his clothes, better tailored than today, his trusty sword, and his fists. He wanted to fight fairly against these honorable warriors, but he made a promise to himself to not give up without a fight.

That's what makes this so exciting for him. He didn't know if he would win or lose. The electricity, and his mentality, made it hard for him to relax or meditate. But his attempt to meditate was still met with some success in calming his fast beating heart.

[Brossk]

Hours passed in what seemed to be an eternity. Now being at least an hour past noon Brossk broke his meditation in anger of a deadline not met. His body was overly prepared, sword was ready, mind was never right regardless.

Brossk stood and walked around the scenery. He started noticing minor imperfections upon the field he will do battle on. Various pot-holes and pockets in the ground made for great places to make someone fall and gain precious seconds and opposing instability. Littered among the grass were pebbles that could be thrown to also divert attention from Brossk's blade. Lastly, the geysers themselves were timed 3 minutes apart; the initial geyser took 18 minutes to erupt.

Taking all of these things into consideration makes a difference between life and death. But lastly to take into consideration was the sun. A powerful tool to use when in battle. The opponents can't hit what they can't see.

Brossk kept these things in mind as he stowed various stones into his jacket and repositioned himself. As he did, the tall grass surrounding this small clearing started to shift. This was it. No turning back as Brossk gripped his unbalanced sword.

All he could say to himself now was, "Took 'em long enough."

[Illys Phinious]

The breeze felt cool, and smelled sweet, with a hint of the mystery of changing seasons. To Illys it meant a change in an eating menu and possibly another sad attempt at tanningmore leather. Honestly, she didnt know what on this green earth she was doing wrong. But obviously it was just not her strongest skill point. Now, it would be handy if ahe had friends to do it for her. Oh wait, she had none.

What are friends for, if not a waste of time and resources. At least this is the way she was trying to train herself to think. It is always easier to train yourself to protect against heartacheally when that heart has been broken.
Being a young girl, these thoughts easily clouded her mind and distract from the task at hand. And it wasnt until she felt her weight crush that of a branch that she had not noticed,and she heard the echo across the clearing. This made her react like a frightened cat, crouching as low into the tall grass as possible. Her right hand pulled her bow infront of her in a defensive position, her elbow bent and her bow in front of her chest. Her bright green eyes scanned the area, seeing if she scared loose some prey.

Her other hand slowly reached for an arrow and fitted it into the bow as if the action was natural for this girl. She hadnt pulled back until she saw the russtling in the grass. A small pale smirk crossed her lips as she felt her heart beat faster with the excitememt fortthe chase. Standing slowly, she pulled the string back to her cheek as she tracked what ever it was. She thought nothing but the thrill of the chase as the thirst for blood. at she would hit didnt matter. She was still some what of a child and didnt have the patience to pay attention.

[Brossk]

It's them! They ain't getting no drop on me!

Brossk flew towards the tall grass drawing his sword with a lunge through the air as youth allowed. Cutting through grass wildly to reveal a girl.

"What the hell?" Brossk asked in confusion. He was taken off guard for a brief moment.

"Are you working for the other three?" Brossk exclaimed with heavy demand in his voice. Brossk's frustrations were evident on his face.

Soon, the tall grass around them shifted silently and the new girl and Brossk were compromised by the Akalak trio aiming arrows at them. They had thought the girl was there in place of their disgraceful comrade, but with Brossk's words, it was then clear who the stand-in was.

Without time to waste, the Akalak silently motioned Brossk to the fighting area. While Brossk was not unarmed, he still put his hands to the air as if he were a prisoner and mouth synced to the girl to run away.

As the warriors entered the battle area the Akalak unarmed their bows and drew their blades. The tallest one that stood in the middle seemed to be the ringleader and spoke for the group.

"Did you really believe we could be bested here, outsider? We've hunted and became men here. You don't have a dog in this fight."

"Ya know, a man never reveals the ace in his sleeve before he walks home for the day. You kids have nothing on a man with nothing to lose."

The dark skinned youth scoffed at Brossk's remark as they readied themselves. The other two Akalak were stone silent as the tall one taunted again. "Any last words and requests, mister sellsword?" The tall one chortled and Brossk called out to them fearlessly, "Just remember my name you apes! Brossk Snowsong! I permit ya to tell Dira my name as she is like my own mother!"

With the call of battle resounding to all peoples ears, there was an uneasy stillness in the air for most parties concerned.

[Illys Phinious]

Being caught by surprise was only the polite way of explaining the situation from her point of view. In the moment he struck, she dropped the arrow and took the brunt of the swings that landed, with her bow. She found it hard to find her footing until he paused.

'by the various gods in this world....' She cursed, looking for her arrow as he yelled at her. She was used to it and didnt expect much from him as she put it away. She figured it was an accident and more then willing to walk away. Until the other three had appeared.

She straightened up and listened. How on earth did this even happen in the middle of no where? Although the discomfort of the drama was some what interesting to pay attention to. And she didnt even have to go to an inn for it! How exciting was that, she thought to herself.

Until reality set in and Illys took in the obviously short sided situation. She put her hands up in a defensive position, although her right hand had stuck to her bow as a child with a security blanket. It was a part of her, and she was so used to it she hadnt noticed.

'whoa whoa whoa now.. This isnt my business but.. Isnt this unfair. You three young and able.. Hes just an old man...' She started. Obviously knowing nothing of the situation. But everything in her told her to see where this was going. Whay else was she going to do today.

[Brossk]

Brossk heard the remark, but was concentrating on his inner flows. Clearing his mind, in a tunnel vision on the ring leader. He took in a deep breath closing his eyes slowly.

Memorizing the weapons of the challengers, the crude weapons were a bit more worn than his sword at this moment from evident constant use. A bastard sword on the left, a skirmish sword on the right, and the leader had a cold-iron made sword. A true prize to be had, but no one expected to be the lone soul to walk out of this fight.

Breath held in deep now, memory of distance of opponents and landscape is key in the way of the warrior. Twenty feet away lie a whole heaping pile of pain and potential death, all of them scantily clad for lightweight movement. The leader being the exception again, having on him chain mail armor, but still light on his feet. The landscape has yet to change even in the slightest, save for the girl in the bushes. If anything, she can be used as a meat shield if they decide or plan to let loose arrows.

The exhale. Brossk's eyes open and takes a defensive stance. With his secret style, he doesn't have a form really to fall onto. This is just a stance he would take to ground himself to make a stand.

The Akalak youths then take queue and charge at Brossk. No one paid attention to the girl in the grass, even as Brossk's sword flew as the assailants got close enough. His sword let loose a small gust making the swishing sound children go crazy over. The leader and left assailant didn't know what hit them. In truth, nothing did. They were less than a foot and a half away ready to crash down on Brossk's head; now they are brought to their knees as Brossk and the right assailant have clashed blades in a lock-up.

[Illys Phinious]

Illys haf gone quiet when she had noticed she was being ignored. She was good with this and didnt stress about it like many others. It wasnt her habit anymore to be noticed. Instead she watchdd the fight as if watching some sort of dramatic reenactment of past battles. She had never seen one, who had the money for that. But thia was just as good.

As she watched, a thought crossed her mind. Perhaps this would be better if she smoked what was in the little black pouch on her left side.
Turning around, Illys tried to find the best and safest place to be to watch the massacre. Tracing the grass with her eyes, she walked several feet away from the fight. But had found no where to sit but the grass. And soon her bow was on her back and she plopped playfully down on the ground. Her small hands going to work on her pouch to produce a two inch bar of rolled leaves. The insidw of which looked like crushed blue flowers. This was when she startdd to struggle with the flint, trying her beat to light this, the bar half hanging out of her mouth.

Today was such a pretty day for this, she noted, although trying to crane her neck over the grass to see what was going on in the fight and who she may have to share this with if they won. She really didnt have her money riding on anyone. But she was interested in seeing who was coming out of this alive.

'this guys gonna get himself killed....' She giggled to herself. 'hey!' She called to the guy 'can i have your stuff when you die?' She asked, obviously joking at the situation, but she wasnt sure if he heard her. Her heart beat fast. With all her joking, she was ready to jump in if need be. In her way, she still thought it wasnt fair to gange up on her. She did her share of it with The Black Hand. Numbers won fights, not skill, in her misguided opinion at the time. She was still young.

[Brossk]

The blades came unhinged as the Akalak cried in a sharp wail. Brossk had reached a hand down only to let the blades slip closer to him as he reached down and grabbed his coherent attacker by his manhood and began jerking viciously.

As blood began to pour from the skirmisher's pelvis, he dropped to his knees in agonizing pain.

One down...

Brossk didn't notice the bastard sword flying at his head at first, but in a moments notice it was dodged as Brossk dropped to the ground, attempting to lean backwards. As the longest sword was being used to chop as if through wood, Brossk rolled one way, then another.

I'm getting too old for this crap.

This continued for a few seconds as the ground started getting minced. The blade was beginning to look intimidating as a jagged from the rocks was being formed. Brossk was a quick thinker at this point in his life, and knew he could break the blade if done right. Only problem was he was still on the ground.

Brossk reached into his robe pockets and pulled out the pebbles. As the bastard sword came out of the ground for another swing, Brossk threw the pebbles into the second Akalak's face. This allowed for precious seconds to help Brossk scamper back on his feet with some difficulty.

The leader was up.

Brossk didn't know at the moment, but as a small chunk of flesh began to flap and ooze blood, the leader was taking swings from behind. Brossk retaliated out of pain with a swift kick that only made a noise in the air.

The leader scoffed as Brossk turned to engage. The bastard sword raised to cleave his head into separate halves.


Splitting headache much?

[Illys Phinious]

The flint rested on her thigh as her attentions turned toward the fight in front of her. She didnt need to smoke for this turn of events to become interesting. The bar in her mouth dangled, long forgotten, on her lower lip. The sweet and bitter taste covering her lips and drying from neglect.

One down and she shifted, another, and she stood hands clenched at her sides with excitement. When the fighter started to bleed, the bar fell from her lips and a hand went to her bow. She searched the two, this man that just took down two men not a minute ago was about to get his head split open.

What did she care? To the winner go the spoils, right? But he did just take down the other two. He learned his lesson about numbers by now, and he earned it.
She sighed hard as she drew her bow and fitted the arrow. She didnt have time to track or aim. She had to act faster then she was used to. Bringing the bow to line with her eyesight, she took the small window. Although ahe knew her aim was far off where she was looking as the arrow landed in his underarm, piercing muscle and tissue like a needle would fabric, tearing through as she fitted another and took aim, but hadnt fired. By now she thought she had more time to pick the target.

[Brossk]

The bastard sword's owner took the arrow and cried out in pain. Brossk only turned in time to land a fist into his face and knock him down.

This...

This is the moment Brossk decided he hated inexperienced kids as he had time to yell. "The hell are ya aiming for? Him or me?! That was too close kid!"

The leader was more calm and focused. Knocking Brossk's unbalanced sword out of his hands. Brossk's back began giving him problems as he avoided swipes from the broadsword. The two backed up closer to the geysers when finally Brossk saw a minor chance opening and took it.

Pulling out his eating knife and placing it oh-so-gently into the leader's dark skin in the meat of his shoulder. The Akalak's face scrunched in pain as Brossk grabbed him and pushed towards a geyser that had been set to go off soon.

The broadsword dropped and there was a rumble in the ground. Brossk put his bloody hands on the back of instigater's head and fought the struggle.

Soon, the kicking and grunting stopped as the scalding water burned the leader and Brossk's hands. By over heating and drowning, the ring leader was dispatched. A fitting way for a pain in the ass to die.

Brossk finally let go as he was showered in luke-warm rain from the hole in the ground. Turning very slowly in exhaust and picking up the cold-iron blade blindly, the soft patter of feet came quickly behind him. Taking a blind swing, Brossk let loose all his frustration into one blow and shattered the Bastard Sword of the remaining Akalak warrior.

In a stroke of bad luck for the last standing fighter, the broken tip stuck in the same arm as the arrow did. In fear that he was out numbered and bested, turned to run the opposite way in the tall grass.