[Flashback/Training] Are you able to keep up? (Solo)

[Ryshaltze]

Season of Spring, Day 1, 508 AV
35 Chimes after the 5th Bell

There's nothing better than fresh morning air.

Ryshaltze strode along the Bazaar of the castle, partly yawning and partly getting some blood pumping into his body. Not that air can get any fresher in a castle's goddamn basement. In fact it was stale as hell compared to the outside air, but it's worth the trade in security considering the dangerous times in the wilderness. He was supposed to buy some food at one of the stalls to bring up to the abode of an adventurer that he has been tracking for some time already - Varen Direx - in exchange for learning some sparring tips.

And he wanted it so bloody early so it won't affect his precious schedule.

He knew he was being particular about it but he supposed he was lucky that Varen managed to find time off to teach him something useful. Which was pretty lucky considering that he managed to catch Varen just as he returned on the last day of the previous season.

Stopping at one of the shops in the Bazaar that opened early, he bought some sandwiches and and begin trudging up the stairways to the first floor of the Castle, heading back to The Whispering Abode.

Can't there be more convenient ways to travel around this big piece of stone?

Indeed, Stormhold Castle is a sprawling complex which size is not for the faint-hearted. The only few good things of staying in the area is the relative peace and security, and the inane amount of exercise one gets just by walking around the place.

He arrived at the small apartment, knocking on the door.

"Come in!" A deep voice boomed.

Varen Direx. Adventurer and occasional freelance security. Eighty percent rogue, twenty percent mage. Known in the field as The Whisperer. Ryshaltze had managed to track him down after a long time in order to get tips from him, for his unorthodox dueling style was pretty well known to those in the know.

[Ryshaltze]

"Close the door, will you?" Varen Direx commented just as Ryshaltze entered the room, not turning his head away from the focus of his attention. Varen was opening his huge backpack and taking out an apple as well as a foldable chair made from leather and wood. Nodding at the sandwiches that Ryshaltze brought, he gestured for him to place them on the table near the entrance of the room and set up the chair, crossing his legs as he sat on it.

The Whispering Abode, or Varen's twenty by twenty feet studio apartment in the Castle has a minimalist design. It is just a simple square room with nothing inside save for the small wooden table near the entrance, painted white, white and white. The floor had black squares crossed on it just like a chessboard. The reason for it was unclear, but it is probably the manifestation of the owner's weird humour.

Varen pointed to the side of the table, where a large wooden greatsword was placed leaning against the table.

"I couldn't really find one that looked like that unwieldy thing you carry around with you, but this should pretty much fulfill our expectations today." He picked up an apple and munched on it, leaning forward on his crossed legs and studying Ryshaltze somewhat lazily.

"Uhh... so when are we going to begin?"
"About 5 seconds ago."

Ryshaltze wondered if there was some trick question to it all and raised his eyebrow.

"Apologies if I do not master the intricacies of fruit consumption. Pardon me while I laugh myself to death at your impressive combat prowess."

Varen snorted and he took a small wooden dagger out of his jacket, taking another bite out of his apple while doing so.

"Don't get snappy so early in the morning boy."
"You're younger than me old man don't call me that."
"Prove yourself. Attack me now."

Varen smirked, remaining seated and waving his wooden dagger mockingly at Ryshaltze.

[Ryshaltze]

Damn that cocky old bugger.

Ryshaltze bent over to pick up the practice sword that Varen had placed beside the table. He pursed his lips while weighing it, contemplating his options.

This is definitely way lighter than Angra Mainyu, though the edge is stockier but shorter. Though I suppose it'll do for this. Not that my swordsmanship has such finesse that I have to actively adjust to such minor details.

Varen Direx is a master of the dagger, both in melee and throwing purposes, as well as a pretty unorthodox fighter in terms of combat. He is a pretty decent spiritists, as must veteran agents have to be, and occasionally dabbles in Reimancy. This combinations makes him a pretty formidable package when faced against. He is a short and not very muscularly built man, with intelligent darting eyes and a false, mocking smile that did not sit well with his relaxed yet tensed up posture. This suggests that his specialty lies in speed rather than strength, and his weapon of choice only further serves to illustrate that point.

Well, here goes nothing.

Ryshaltze lifted the wooden claymore and held it in front of him with two hands in a typical kendo stance. He relaxed his shoulders and steadied his breath, giving no inclination of doing anything other than to stay there and do nothing.

"Quite the meditative one, I see. Yes, that must..."

Without letting him finish his sentence, Ryshaltze suddenly and quite violently sped right in front of Varen, smashing his sword down on the small man.

Varen did not move his body much. His legs remained crossed, his back just became slightly straighter, and his left palm remained lightly closed around his partially eaten apple. However, his right arm was a blur, tapping the claymore left and right quickly as it followed through its decent downwards. By the time the claymore reached him, so much energy has been dissipated that he could simply poke the tip of dagger on the width of the blade away from him, his two fingers holding on the hilt of the knife.

"This, is how to defend against a sudden and strong attack in your front when you are using a weapon much smaller than your opponents."

What exactly did he do? Ryshaltze swore.

Varen sighed, put the apple in his mouth and suddenly put that hand on his portable chair while kicking off. Ryshaltze braced against the impact and found Varen now further away from him, in that same relaxed position as before.

"What I did, my friend, is to triumph strength with speed. Sometimes, you have to find the balance between the two."

He paused, taking another bite and chewed while thinking, as if considering the sweetness of the fruit.

"You must be able to anticipate and visualize movements before they occur. And in doing so, I am able to negate your attack. What I did was to dissipate large chunks of your energy by directing them left, right, but never towards myself. I do so with short but strong bursts. This is called 'spike energy'. Since your strength and weapon combined together obviously have a much stronger strength factor than me and my teeny weapon, facing you head on would be disastrous."

He resumed his grip on the dagger, waving it again.

"Now do the same thing, but try something else to hit me. Remember, not everything is about going head to head. Even if you thing that you have the advantage in terms of force multipliers, your opponent may just use that very confidence to turn the tables on you."

Ryshaltze gripped the claymore with both hands again and focused on Varen.

So he wants to play huh. Let's do this, old man.

He did the same thing, bursting suddenly in front of Varen. Instead of following through as he did, he raised his claymore as if to cut down, but paused in midswing as Varen started to move his dagger, and removed his left arm from the hilt. His right arm maintained his grip and swung the claymore in a right arc slashing towards the left of Varen's torso. At the same time, he sidestepped and strafed around to Varen's left and kept his left arm in a defensive posture, across his chest pointing towards his shoulder.

It was as if Varen never skipped a beat. He intended to block Ryshaltze's attack with the same move, but upon seeing the change, he instantly put the apple back into his mouth, while turning to face Ryshaltze as he sidestepped. Still on the chair, he leaned backwards letting the blade swing pass him. Before letting the claymore finish its course, he swung his legs up in an acrobatic move and somersaulted following the swing of the blade, landing with his legs on the width of the blade and pressing it towards the ground.

Ryshaltze saw that quick movement, and although he was too slow to prevent his blade from being disabled, he pushed up his right arm as if using a shovel and kicked the flat of the blade nearer to the ground.

Varen easily hopped backwards to avoid his move.

Ryshaltze saw that opening and plunged his blade forward just as he finished kicking it upward to face Varen.

In one deft motion, Varen managed to align his dagger perpendicular, but with flat edges touching, to the claymore as it swung towards him, keeping the cross-guard of the dagger facing upwards and downwards. There was a dim thud as the claymore struck the cross-guard, and he immediately twisted the dagger 90 degrees such that it went from being parallel to the ground - and the claymore - to being perpendicular. Doing so disrupted the flow of energy from the swing and caused the claymore to follow suit, resulting in the reduced energy in the swing and with the flat of the claymore - rather than the edge - facing him. Without hesitating, he kicked the claymore away from him and utilized the force from doing so to leap into Ryshaltze's upper torso, keeping in mind that this was only possible due to his small stature and Ryshaltze's huge one. He brandished his blade and went straight for the kill.

[Ryshaltze]

Ryshaltze resisted the primal urge to close his eyes or look away as Varen closed in on him, instead letting go of the large weight that was kicked away from him. In doing so, he freed up his right arm and took a step back to avoid being skewered, swinging his right arm from outwards towards Varen's back.

Varen replied with a kick in mid-air that was blocked by Ryshaltze's timely counter with his shin that Varen used as a lift to jump even higher, managing to twist his shorter body sideways to block the right-handed attack with his left forearm. He jabbed at the Ethaefal again with his right arm still holding that dagger.

With Varen in mid-air, Ryshaltze sidestepped further rightwards to avoid the dagger and adjusted the position of his right arm to punch slightly higher up, while thrusting his left palm in a right-to-left karate cut parallel to the ground aiming for the lung area.

Varen maintained his feel on Ryshaltze's right arm and rotated his forearm ninety degrees to meet the upwards adjusted attack, then collapsed his arm inwards to block the left cut with the edge near his elbow. Still in that position, he turned his wrist slightly to grab Ryshaltze's left forearm and athletically used it as a hold to launch into a full body kick aiming for his opponent's head while simultaneously jabbing his dagger with his right hand, losing all contact with the ground with the only point of contact being his grip.

Ryshaltze had partially anticipated the kick, owing to the fact that Varen often fought 'out of the box'. However, the hand-to-hand exchanges had made him forget about the dagger that Varen still held, and the weapon that he no longer held. He lifted his left arm and easily absorbed the kick, in doing so left the middle of his person open to the knife, with his right arm engaged in a grapple with Varen's left arm.

"Bingo." Varen drawled as he spat out the apple that he had clenched in his jaw throughout the duel. The recoil from his failed kick pushed his legs back to the ground and he lightly poked the edge of the wooden dagger on Ryshaltze's chest.

"Thou hath been murdered by wooden splinters." Varen proclaimed, turning around to pick up the apple and proceeded towards the tiny trash bin under the table to dispose of his apple, which had apparently been rendered visibly inedible. Cause of death: mutilation by teeth.

[Ryshaltze]

It was not to be, however, and the apple could not proceed on with a solemn disposal ceremony. Ryshaltze lunged towards the fallen claymore and thrusted it as fast as he could towards the Varen's back. It was dirty move, sure, but it would be something that Varen encouraged, and frankly, he was pretty pissed off to get such utterly trashed in a fight. And he knew that Varen did not even take this sparring session seriously.

Varen heard the sound as the wood thudded on the floor and he spun around, throwing the sad remains of the fruit towards with great force on the claymore. As the sword was thrusted immediately after being picked up, the flat of the blade was facing upwards, and the force of the apple pushed it low enough for Varen to lift a leg and quickly stomp it downwards, on the flat of the blade in the same disabling move he used earlier, but now with only one leg.

"Ah, innovation at last from my dear student, but we're finished for today. If you check in the drawer of that table-" He nodded towards the one lone table near the entrance of the room.

"-there should be a book titled Against Impossible Odds: The Key to Winning an Uneven Sword Fight. There should be strategies and tips outlined that describes the various advantages and disadvantages of small weapons like this-" He raised the wooden dagger.

"-and of unwieldy disgraces like yours-" He tapped his foot against the claymore again, thudding the ground as if to emphasize his point.

"There are also some techniques mentioned that you can use when you're a small against a large, or vice versa. Maybe that will give you a better chance the next time we have a go again."

He lifted his leg from the wooden great sword and picked up his backpack, doubling towards the exit.

"Let me know when you've finished that book. If you don't understand anything, ask any of those hyperactive monkeys with swords that you usually find around this watering hole. We'll schedule another session when you're done. Remember to lock my door when you're done gaping. Though there's nothing for robbers to take, except this table and the bin, yea?"

Varen Direx paused slightly to pick up the sandwiches that Ryshaltze brought for him and started for the door.

"And while you're at it, throw away that damn apple. That's my boy."

[Leviathan]

Thread Award! Ryshaltze Exp +3 Greatsword, +2 Unarmed Combat Lore Hand-to-Knife Combat, Size Doesn't Matter Additional Comments Very fun thread here. It was brief, I would have loved to read on, but I suppose everything must stop at some point. I definitely like the almost disrespectful conversations between student and teacher, a really fun touch of flavor. If you have any questions or comments about this awarding, feel free to PM me. I am new at this, still learning, and any constructive criticism might help. If you feel like I cheated you out on something, make sure you let me know and we can discuss whether you get a few more points or not. Good writing!