Closed Clumsier Than Thou.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He needed this to end. One way or another. Either, most likely, he'd end up trapped one way or another and forced to submit when there was nothing left to escape with. Likely that Vanessa wouldn't be making the same mistake as before if she caught him now. No openings, no escapes.. he'd have to surrender himself. Then he could just play it off, maybe? Try not to make a big deal out of his loss? He didn't know what. Funny really that he'd struggled to find someone offering a real challenge for the Pycon, but when it finally came, he suddenly wished that it didn't. He'd remember this for the future. It's all very well and good wanting a bit of a challenge. Not when everything is at stake.

Perhaps he was just overreacting. So what if he lost here or there.. everyone did, sooner or later. Nobody could admit it, of course, but nobody could spend their entire lives undefeated. As much as Arch would like to think that he would be one of the few.. he'd already faced humiliation by monk attack, Sunberthian muggers and more. He'd fallen short before he'd even caught sight of the starting line. Perhaps he'd just hoped that with a return to Syliras, he'd returned for a fresh start at it all.

For all his lamenting, it looked like the battle wasn't over yet though. In the moments of shock, he'd actually gained a bit of an advantage. He'd managed to get at least a decent punch into the side of Vanessa's foot, just below the ankle. Keep up the pressure. He readied himself for a second punch, but the foot shot out abruptly and nearly slammed straight into his gut. No time to get out of the way. Instead he just threw the punch straight for the toe of the foot, leaning into it with more of his weight and clenching down hard around the clay of the fist to harden it, like a stone. Hopefully it'd give a bit more of an advantage. Last thing he wanted was her getting away now.

At least she wasn't going to be using the cloak any more. He wasn't going to wait for her to finish tying it back up again. He was going to put all of his weight into every punch he threw at her ankles until she wouldn't be able to hold herself on them any more. Then he'd climb up and put that Py-String to good use.

[Vanessa Lawson]

Vanessa felt her weight give under the pressure at her ankles, and fell with a thud to the ground. She graced her arms around her face to shield herself from the incoming impact as she fell. By the time she realized her folly it was too late. By trying to hold her ground instead of trying to move away, she had put herself in a very bad place. The squirrel was already on her, so trying to shake him off was out. Especially since he had claws.

The raven haired woman stood, and made attempts to grab him. At the same time she was trying to think of what she could do once she had him. Squeezing him wouldn't work because he could easily thin himself as proven earlier. Then again she couldn't cloak him either. He'd just rip through it. So what could she do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She could spin him off, couldn't grab him, couldn't cloak him. That was all her options gone.

The clay squire had won? True if he got to her neck he could easily wrap that thin string around he neck. Surrender would be unavoidable. Then again, she had at least managed to get more training in a sense. Then she thought about it. He'd go somewhere that he could cause the most damage, right? Now she had an idea. She continued to grab for the squirrel, and shake wildly.

She then threw herself back into the snow, attempting to pin the squirrel under her weight. If she manged to pin him, she might have a chance. If she failed she'd just hope she could stand fast enough.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He was actually gaining an advantage. Rather than bask in the moment, he looked to what he could do next; take advantage of her while she was down. Crawl around the side, jump on her head, loop the string around her neck and force her to surrender. As he backed off several paces and begun the sprint around her side, his paws reached down to the small length of string still bouncing off his outer thigh to pull the handles free from his clay. He'd have to guess how much string would be needed to loop around her head, but once he had a decent length, the remainder looped several times around his paws to ensure a firm grip.. last thing he wanted to do was lose the one weapon he still held.

He needed to move fast, as always, but mobility again wasn't on his side. From the edges of his vision, hands reached out to try and grab the Pycon, but Arch at least managed to hop to the side before they flattened him or grabbed him. At one moment, they came a little too close for comfort and one of the hands nearly managed to knock him - both of his paws tried to strike at the side, but they were still wrapped up tightly in the string. Instead, the Py-String deflected the hand at the wrist and threw it off to the side. Hmm. Why hadn't he thought of this before?

Just before he could put any of it to good use, Vanessa threw herself down into the snow and begun rolling around. Immediately, Arch backed off several more steps to give her all the room in the world; the last thing he wanted to do was to get too close. That shyke could spell the end in an instant. All of that weight, crushing all of his body at once. No. He gave her ample room while tightening the string with another few wraps of the silk-like strand around each paw, making sure that the stuff was nice and taut. He'd lost the height advantage, but there was still hope.

"Come on.. I'm right here." He was more nervous than he'd ever been in a fight like this. It was only a spar.. but the longer it went, the more tired the squirrel became. Moving around, trying to anticipate Vanessa.. all of it was too taxing for the Pycon to keep it up for more than a few chimes. He'd lost all sense of time since they'd started - his mind knocked into a new gear never before touched.

[Vanessa Lawson]

The raven haired woman rolled away from him and on to her feet. This was ridiculous. Here she was rolling and running around like a madwoman trying to be a squirrel. She was wasting more time and effort than she would like to admit. So far her only advantage had been at times her size, but mostly the clay squires' mobility and speed. His small size made his stride much smaller, so he was definitely a bit slow.

The woman charged the squirrel and lunged to grab him with her hands. She knew that the action would require her to dive, but if she was lucky she'd be able to grab her opponent. If she did she knew better than to let go or loosen her grip. She'd also have to keep the squirrel boxed in so he couldn't squeeze out. It was annoying to say the least. There were so many mesures she had to go through to keep him from escaping.

OOCSorry it's short, I wanted to get something up for you.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Finally - things were turning up. That's it. Trying to get out of the way was essentially futile. She had the advantage of size, of strength and speed; pretty much everything there was to have over the Pycon, she had it. Perhaps he could try and slide in-between her fingers but that was a pretty difficult task when he was sound in the head.. not to mention the obvious risks attached with what would happen if even a tiny part of his body got caught up in her grasp. He couldn't go under, couldn't go over, nor around, nor through. Turning tail and trying to escape back the way he'd come was equally as stupid.

Instead, he reared himself back and prepared. His fingers clenched until he could barely feel the individual digits anymore.. instead, he could feel the hand and most of the wrist slowly molding together into a hard lump of clay slowly being fed more and more from the rest of his body. It was a difficult job normally, reshaping his limbs - in some cases his entire body - to suit whatever purpose was needed. It took a lot of concentration. With Vanessa easily closing the distance between them in a footstep or two, though, he didn't have the luxury of time or patience for these things. Whatever he could do would be done now.

For the most part, the density of the clay made a significant increase; more clay pushed down into a tighter spot made sure that his fist wouldn't immediately deform after one punch. If he crumpled before, even during the impact, then he'd be done. The second part wasn't done quite as well as he would have liked though. The squirrel had at least attempted to reshape the lump into something a little more dangerous - a single, thick spike he'd hoped to ram straight into Vanessa's palm. The cone was too thick around the base though.. the tip didn't have enough clay in it to be able to hold up after impact. It'll have to do. It was rushed work at best, half-finished and barely thought about as he swung the thick lump with all the speed his little clay body could muster.

"You ain't getting this!" If the Pycon had teeth, they'd likely be ground up into dust long ago. This was literally a last-chance deal.. if it fell flat, Vanessa would have the spar and the squirrel. If it didn't, though.. oh boy. Twenty-three pounds of squirrel thrown all into one fist barely an inch in diameter. He didn't even want to think about what it would've looked like if he'd had more time to finish off the spear-like tip and fine-tune it.

[Sayana]

Archailist Skills: Skill EXP Rhetoric +3 Leadership +2 Intimidation +5 Persuasion +2 Interrogation +1 Tactics +4 Intelligence +1 Climbing +1 Escape Artist +1 Philosophy +1 Pyken +2 Running +1 Py-String +1 Endurance +1 Lores: Rhetoric: Making fun of others Leadership: Getting a laugh from comrades Persuasion: Convincing yet empty threats Escape Artist: Escaping a cloth bag Py-string: Blocking techniques Vanessa: Clever squire Shield Points: Shield Points Earned Reason +5 Training -2 Behaviour unbecoming of a knight Total: +3 Shield Points Comments : Great thread. Really interesting tactic that Vanessa used (and yes, plenty of people might try if they find out). And a clever escape plan too. Plus there was a nice bit of bonding with the other squires, hence the leadership points and the unbecoming conduct. Vanessa Comments : If you return to Mizahar, PM me and I will award you grades. Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request in the grade request thread. However, make sure to keep the link so that the DS can review graded threads with ease. If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message (like really, I’m all ears if you feel like I missed something). Enjoy.