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[Kreig Messer]

Kreig looked at the lot, it wasn't that they were lazy or lacking in resolve...or at least most of them, their leader was simply unsure of himself, not that Kreig could blame him.... He imagined that this were a true combat situation, perhaps the lad would find the resolve, but it wasn't and so Elijah was simply a nervous squire thrust in a false rank in a mock simulation. The rest would simply go with what the leader's orders as unranked knights should, though Kreig liked that Stalinsa seemed to be voicing out her opinions in the most 'respectful' way possible. He agreed with her words though he also had his own doubts, as she said the enemy needed thinning out. He also liked the fact that, despite Elijah's reluctant behavior, was that he was listening her out and imagined that if the leader couldn't offer his own input, he'd at least take the words of his second and those beneath him into consideration.

"Stalinsa words have merit Ser, we cannot afford to dally around. If we allow for time to past then very soon the enemy will know that they are missing scouts, they would know of our possible location and either fortify their defenses or even send out their best" Kreig said as he stood behind Stalinsa, but then moved past her with his crossbow in hand "If I may further speak, Ser?" One wouldn't think Kreig a polite man if they knew of his actions during his own free time, but they would be surprised...thing is Kreig knew when there was a time to be respectful and a time to be forceful, especially to one's commanding officer. It was much like speaking to a gang leader, really, you had to show respect so that no conflict was bred between members and that the leader didn't think of you as a threat, in this regard he needed cohesiveness. He turned to look at this comrades, his eyes looking into theirs one by one and to Stalinsa's eyes he tried to convey a simple message 'watch and learn.

He turned back to Elijah, rubbing his own shoulder with his free hand "Ser, if I might make a suggestion, I think it would be feasible to follow Stalinsa's suggestion."

" But what if we fail? I mean no offence to Stalinsa's plan, I think any plan is better than nothing but the odds are still very much against us" Now that's what Kreig liked to see from their leader, he offered his own oppinion if a bit pessimistic.

Kreig, in response, simply shrugged and said "Time is of the essence Sir, win or lose, we would have at least performed our duty to the fullest and in the name of the Order and our gods. And failure whilst performing our duty is hardly something to be ashamed about, as this a simulation we simply need to redouble our training efforts and do our very best again next simulation" Elijah nodded, though still quite reluctant. Resgined to the situation, especially when duty was involved, he raised his voice in a slightly authorative tone and said;
" Alright, everyone move out. Narick, take lead and keep eyes open, I'd much fancy avoiding falling into an ambush or just plain caught aware" And with that the small unit began to move forward, ready to perform what could be a suicidal task. Kreig moved next to Stalinsa, leaned his head next to hers and whispered;

"Learn how to speak lass, the way you say it can make all the difference in the world"

x

[Dalavesta Stalinsa]

Dalavesta Stalinsa

The group began to move and relief coursed through her, she didn’t just want to win this war game she needed to. She needed to further her namesake, improve her skills and use the base foundations of her reputation to ascend the heights of the Order. It was a difficult task that she had set herself but one which she was willing to sweat blood itself to achieve. If she couldn’t handle a small war game then she was fitting for her dreams and that would crush her. She would recover eventually she knew but the blow would be significant. As they trudges along, circling the hillocks that she was now sure made up the enemies base, they all kept their eyes open and shields up.

Good, we won’t be caught short next time. We’ll cut them down if we see them she told herself, shifting her shield onto her back and instead bringing her shortbow around and into her left hand, pulling and arrow and keeping it loosely on the bowstring and ready to fire if needed.

“I don’t talk very well perhaps, but I have little time for time wasters. They needed to be told they were slacking. So far we two have done the work” she hissed back to Kreig, the giant had decided to become her personal ghoul for some reason she could not discern.

“I don’t care how they see me, they already see me just for my House name so I might as well act the way they wish me to be. All I care about is success. If we all die in the exercise bar one – the one who rams the blade home – then so be it. That is what it means to be a Knight…self-sacrifice. I think this challenge is meant to teach us that. We can’t win…not without most of us losing” she licked her lips and furrowed her brow.

Had she just seen something? Perhaps…

“Stop!” she hissed and pulled back her bowstring, aiming carefully for the edge of a thorn bush.

She breathed and pulled back the string, locking her arm a she had practised and pulling the forefingers of her right hand to her right cheek. She sighted frown the fletching and balanced the arrow upon the edge of her thumb carefully. Taking a deep breath she exhaled and let her fingers sip from the string. The arrow flew, slightly off target and hitting the heart of the thorn bush instead of the edge but evidently passing through as the exclamation of whoever was hidden behind it reached all of their ears.

“Shield wall Ser!” she shouted as she repositioned herself, pulling another arrow from her quiver and nocking it to the bow string as quickly as she could.

She fumbled it a little but eventually managed to get it in place, haste was not her strong point with the bow. She noted that the majority of the others were locking their shields together now, Kreig stepping forwards to give orders where their assigned leader was showing himself for the worth he lacked. She shifted in behind the wall as best she could, keeping to the edge and flipped her head out to see how many there were.

“I Count three more, arrows!” she shouted as they began to rain down upon them, “can’t take them all myself, someone else get on a petching bow!” she shouted.

[Kreig Messer]

'oh ho, she isn't going to get far with that attitude" Kreig noted as he let a false grin creep up on his face, but said nothing as now was not the time, especially since she did not stop talking 'Have to agree with here though, obvious from the onset that they expect us to fullfil our duty even if it means death' The problem was that this was a simulation, they know it is a simulation and that was where the issue lay...it was a game to them, there was no risk other than the fact they'd be admonished slightly by their patrons and perhaps extra training, which is really no consequnce. He couldn't see how Stalinsa's family name affected anything really, there were so many of them walking about along Brocks and Druvas that quite frankly whatever base there was as negligent as finding a needle in a haystack ' 'Sides, the knights prefer effort, don't think Stalinsa will get anywhere if she is thinking that her name and success will make her a knight' But he didn't know Stalinsa herself, he may know some day...but of course today would not be that day.

Soon all things turned to combat as Stalinsa noted their foes for once, the flow changed as Narrick moved next to Stalinsa and firing back arrows as quickly and efficiently as he could " Keep yer yammer down, there's more of them and they're circling us! They knew we were coming" Even with the shield wall that mean they would be flanked. Kreig turned to see that in truth they've already have and he was actually impressed by Elijah, the supposedly worthless leader....well he did make up for it by being a warrior "ALL RIGHT YOU LOT, Stallinsa and Narrick, keep the archers occupied. Ser Elijah, Oriana and I will take up the behind whilst the rest take out the front lot." Suddenly one of the shield bearers fell down "Petch.....Alright you lot, it seems the enemy has decided to come at us in full force. if you see the enemy commander.....petching do everything you can to take him out, you got that?! To the last breath we are gonna take all these bastards with us and we will win this!' Kreig announced.

Elijah swung his broad sword at one of his foes as his shield caught the enemies blade...this was the third one he took down and with a loud roar at that. Kreig himself had lifted his longsword and held it with two hands as 4 more assialants came at them from behind, Oriana swung her axe as she intercepted one of them whilst Kreig himself blocked an incmoing blow from a praticularly tall squire.

"Heh....this is going to be fun"

x

[Dalavesta Stalinsa]

Dalavesta Stalinsa

A Losing Front Near You

“For petch sake keep that wall up! Don’t break yet!” she shouted to the two still left forming a make shift barricade – the third had fallen and was laying still as per the rules.

Arrows were raining down upon them, a small rain of three every second or so. She was waiting for a lull, an indication that the hammering upon shield was about to peter out – they had limited arrows after all. The drumming began to falter, flickering and ebbing for just a moment in the pattern and she nodded, stepping to the side with arrow nocked. She pulled the string as quickly as she could, aiming for the one on the fir right up on the ridge 0 she aimed for his chest, centre mass ad easier to hit. She let fly and killed one of them, though ti was the one standing next to her target and she cursed even as the glory of battle began to fill her with its rhythm.

“Two left! Get one of the other ones and then you two break and run for the last one on the hill! If we fall then at least you get the higher ground to kill as many of them as you can before falling” she shouted.

“One, two, three!” she counted as she pulled another arrow out of her quiver and stepped out, the second archer now standing beside her.

Hand pulled to her cheek, arm locked and breathing momentarily stilled she closed one of her eyes and frowned down the arrow. She let it fly, the older male archer letting loose at the same time. Both arrows hit him, though in differing places – the leg and the shoulder. She was not happy with her technique and, truth be told, not happy she couldn’t seem to use it properly in battle. Still, another one of their enemies were dead and that was something.

“Break!” she shouted as she dropped her borrowed short bow and pulled her shield from her back, checking her grip. She drew her sword from its scabbard and ran towards the melee, some of their enemies had been cut down but they had themselves suffered three dead now she noted – too many in exchange. She crashed her shield into a red wielding an axe just as he was about to cut down one of her won and pushed it outwards, flicking his weapon to the side and steeping away so that the woman of the blue she didn’t know could hammer her rough axe head home. They nodded to each other and she slipped towards Kreig.

He seems to be the more natural leader she thought as she ran, increasing her speed through ragged breaths and skidded until she was all but back to back with him. She blocked a thrusting sabre with her broadsword, sliding the blade forwards along its length and twisting her wrist to flick it away before she kicked the man squarely between the legs. She wooden lathe came around to smash into his temple as he sunk to his knees.

“Another down but we’re losing” she shouted over her shoulder, “see the leader yet?”

[Kreig Messer]

"No, but keep your chin up, the numbers of arrows fired has lessened. Their numbers has lessened.... even with the lessening of our own numbers our chances increase further with each number they lose" He told her, blocking a sword strike and he looked deep into his foes eyes. The Red was about to slam his shield into Kreig but yelped as Kreig struck his shin with a kick, allowing Kreig to pushed the Red back off balance and struck him down with an overhead strike right across the Red's chest, causing him to drop 'dead' as it were.

He looked to see what Elijah's doing, he was doing his best and doing it well as the young squire raised one shield to block a blow to his left and with the side of his blade blocked one from the right and let the foe's blade slide off against the flat of it. He struck the one with the left with his blade, causing him to drop and focuse all attention to the one remaining.

Kreig then returned to the heat of battle himself as he and Stalinsa were no surrounded and cut off from the remainder of their unit. Narrick was still fending off foes and replenishing his own supply of arrows from used ones to looting them off the fallen, switching to melee when necessary and Oriana was locked deep in battle with a Red wielding a wooden katana. Two other of their Blues were doing the best they could against some of the reds but soon they fall and Oriana was struck in the abdomen by an arrow "Petch..." He said in a low voice, still there was a smile on his face.

"Stalinsa, if we take down one of these Red's... I want you to break through and search for their leader, I'll take care of the lot here. If you do find him, take him out....but if you even have a single doubt then don't. Just keep him or her busy, understand?" Kreig said to her before snapping his left arm in an open to catch the wrist of a red with a mace, swing his sword horizontally from left to right only for it to be blocked and thus he and the red were locked in a deadly grapple, each trying to overpower the other "And take Narrick with you, He's a brat but his archery would be invaluable to keep the pressure off"

x

[Dalavesta Stalinsa]

Dalavesta Stalinsa

[webfont=Juergen][size=200][color=#CFB53B]

“Fine, but if you get killed and leave me by myself then I’m going to kick your stones into dust. Understand?” she shouted between the grunts caused by the raining in of blows upon her shield, “petch off you bastard!” she shouted as she absorbed another blow, tilted her shield and then flicked it out to push the blade away.

She slammed her own blade outwards horizontally and it rand upon the wooden buckler of her opponent. She stepped in to bash shield against shield and threw her arm up as they locked so that she could get a solid kick into the opponent’s thigh to unbalance them. They stepped backwards under the pressure but prevented a killing blow with a wild swing of their weapon that she was forced to bring her shield up to stop once more. As they both recovered she spied their only archer left and he circled his hand. She nodded and stepped to her right, exposing his back to her ally and watched the look of surprise cross his face as the arrow slammed into his spine. She thrust her blade into his stomach for good measure and to register a full kill.

“Narrick, cover me” she shouted as she ran through the melee looking to lash out however she could to help out her allies for the exercise.

As she ran she saw one about to fall, they were weapon-less and down to one knee in the face of a wooden katana wielding red. She charged in to smash her shield rim into the man’s shoulder and heard the scream of pain and rage and smiled at the bruise that would be left – realism was a harsh mistress and the Order loved realism. It taught people far faster than fancy. She rammed the shield rim home again, pulling her arm back and rotating the forearm before snapping it forwards. She stepped to the side and slashed her blade down his back in a mock kill and he was then upon the floor. She noticed the arrow in the woman’s gut, and though she smiled at her and nodded she too took her position upon the floor.

“Damn it!” she screamed, her rage at having been unable to save her comrade simmering, bubbling up into full blown frenzy.

She looked around and saw what she thought was the leader – a woman and their sash was marked with a white chevron that denoted rank. They were guarded by three shielded fighters who did not move and merely stood. They were sentinels and she knew she wouldn’t make it through them herself, she needed help. She had little time to think though as a spear flashed towards her from her left and she was forced to throw herself to her right to avoid her death – losing her shield in the process but not her broadsword. The spear flashed out again as she tried to bring herself upwards and she circled her blade before her to slap it away. She stood up now and they circled each other – they were alone.

The other reds are either now dead or have won back there. Damn it all she screamed internally at the idea of losing, the very thought revolting her to the deepest recesses of her consciousness.

“Any time now Kreig” she shouted as she stepped back to avoid a lunge of the spear.