[Training] Downtime Workout (Open)

[Pua]

7th Day of Fall

The noise of Taloba echoed around Pua where he stood on the training grounds' archery range. He did his best to tune out the drone of a city of voices talking, the distant squeals of playing children, and the sounds of his fellow Myrians also training upon the training field. Breathing in steadily Pua looked down over the top of his repeating crossbow's clip. Fifty paces down range, a bull’s-eye target slowly came into sharp focus as everything else washed out into a haze. Lined up with the centric circle of the bull’s-eye, Pua exhaled, gently squeezing the crossbow's trigger as he did so. With a sharp twang the bolt leapt from the crossbow down range.

Gripping the weapon tightly was his left hand he jammed the stock against his shoulder to hold it in place. With his right hand he gripped the handle if the crossbow's unique windlass and rapidly cranked it. After two and a half cranks the bowstring clicked back into place and the next bolt dropped down out of the clip. Bringing his right hand back to the trigger he adjusted his aim to one of four bull’s-eye targets that he had placed at thirty-five paces. As soon as the sights lined up he snapped the trigger, loosing another bolt. Once more, he jammed the stock in place and cranked the windlass. With the next bolt in place Pua moved onto the second thirty-five pace target and quickly fired. For the third time he completed the cranking reload sequence for his crossbow and aimed down range at the third target, jerking the trigger as the target entered his field of vision. Pua dropped to one knee, cranking on the windlass yet again to load fifth and final bolt in the clip and cock the crossbow. Remaining in his position on one knee he snap fired at the fourth thirty-five pace target.

Pua placed the repeating crossbow at his feet and rose to a stand. He pulled his two hand crossbows out of the bulky oversized belt pouches that housed them. At twenty paces Pua had set up two training manikins. Straightening out his arms, Pua pointed a hand crossbow at each manikin and pulled the triggers. Dropping the two sturdy weapons to the dirt with his repeater, he raised his arms one final time. This time he pointed with his index and middle fingers at two more manikins, these placed out only ten paces down range. A quick finger motion and a brace of bolts jumped down range from the bracer mounted crossbow on each of Pua's wrists.

Pua relaxed where he stood behind the firing line of the range, his sequence done. Glancing up and down the line to be sure that no one else was using the range; Pua stepped over the small pile of crossbows at his feet and meandered over to the right hand ten pace manikin. The micro bolt from Pua's bracer crossbow was lodged in the manikin’s lower left abdomen; he gently pulled it out and moved on to the next target. The left manikin set at ten paces had a nick on top of its left shoulder, and Pua found his bolt another twenty paces beyond in the dirt. The left side manikin at twenty paces had a hand crossbow bolt in the the lower right section of its ribs. Moving over to the right manikin, Pua removed his bolt from the training dummy's sternum, eliciting a smirk from Pua. Finally a definite kill shot. Moving back to the thirty-five pace mark, Working backwards from the fourth bull’s-eye to the first Pua collected the full-sized bolts. Counting the white rim, each bull’s-eye was marked in four rings a hand wide radiating out from the circular bull’s-eye. The fourth target was hit in the third ring slightly above center and to the right. The third target was still pristine, Pua had missed it completely. The bolt lodged in the second bull’s-eye was also located within the third ring, to the upper right of the bull’s-eye. Finally the first target had been struck in the outside edge of the fourth ring, to the left of center. Marching back to his original target placed at fifty paces, Pua went to examine the results of his aimed shot. He hoped it would be better than the rather dismal results of his speed shooting. Surprisingly, this shot had landed directly in line with the center of the target, however, Pua had not compensated enough for the distance and the bolt's trajectory had sunk below the bull’s-eye, striking the target in the middle of the first ring. Pua was pleased by this. It wasn't a true bull’s-eye, but it still showed he could shoot accurately when required, so long as he took his time to aim properly.

As he walked back the firing line with a hand full of various sized bolts Pua evaluated his performance. He was disappointed in his overall accuracy, Only one center shot during his speed firing exercise, and an good, though not perfect, shot on his aimed fire. But, he reflected, he had managed to hit seven of the nine targets so he couldn't count the exercise as a complete failure. Squatting next to his crossbows, Pua laid the bolts on the ground and set about beginning the reloading of his numerous weapons.

[Cayenne]

As he was reloading his weapons, he heard a slow clapping behind him. “Not bad,” he heard the voice behind him. “Not bad at all.” A solidly built female, wearing the leathers of a scout stood clapping slowly from behind him. Her skin wasn’t as dark as his, but more of a mud brown that went well with the green-tinged leathers she wore, dark enough that the stripes on her arm were almost difficult to see. With the right movements, she would be easy to lose sight of in the jungle, even with an experienced tracker.

How fortunate, then, that she was one.

This was Rahi of the Tiger Eyed. She was his boss, technically, and the Spymistress of the Council of Nine. He hadn’t seen her since he had arrived back in Taloba in the summer, but that didn’t necessarily mean she wasn’t in the city. Rahi was always moving about, but hers was a complicated job. Legend had it that the woman had made it into Zinrah’s depths and out… alive. Whether it was true or not, she knew more about the defaced, defiled city that was now little more than a nest of snakes than possibly anyone else in Taloba. She carried with her a short, dark, curved bow that gleamed – any Myrian knew that weapons must be taken care of to get the most out of them. She approached him, then, a leather quiver hanging on a strap over her shoulder, the construct of leather and bone resting against her hip.

“The crossbow… does it serve you well? Deyhan construct, no doubt. Show me,” Rahi stood waiting for him to reload, deftly stringing her own bow while she waited. The curve grew even more pronounced as she drew the bowstring, stretching it out before releasing it slowly. Now he had an audience, and he was going to have to suffer it. Rahi wasn’t going to go anywhere until she’d seen what she wanted to see.