[Flashback] Morituri te Salutant, Part III.

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[Flashback] Morituri te Salutant, Part III.

Postby Loken on November 21st, 2017, 9:34 pm

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Spring 40th, 506 A.V.

Loken did no truly understand when it happened, but he had grown used to the spectacles of viscera that took place within The Akeldama Colosseum. As the murmuring crowds awaited for the actions in the pits below to begin, Loken crouched like a lion ready to strike. He was clad in the blackened leather armor of no striking details or regalia. He was just another man ready to do battle as he ran his hands along the blood redden sands. The only thing that made him stand out from any of the other fighters was his hooked blade that hung from the harness along his back.

It was true that Loken was the first person into the pit, but as several chimes passed various other combatants started to filter into the fighting area. He ran his eyes over each of them as they all took their places, stretchered, or showboated to the crowd. Loken recognized a few of them from witnessing past fights, but his eyes met with one other who he had personally fought.

She was a red haired Inarta woman with a powerful build, named Lymera the Scarlet Boar. She was now dressed in a chain shirt rather than that simple leather band she wore when he fought her. Loken too note of the steel gauntlets she wore which made it obvious that she was still going to focus on using her unarmed strength to her advantage again.

When she noticed that Loken was in the pit, she pointed one finger at him. He was still in a crouch, but acknowledged her with a simple nod of his head. It became obvious to the crowd that the two had marked each other as targets once the match started. Loken ignored her for the moment as he started to count how many people were in the pit. "Sixteen in total. Four have no weapon; Lymera being one." He canted his head at a man in the distance who held a short bow. "That will be a problem... you go first."

He made sure not to stare at the bowman, keeping his attention focused on Lymera. When their challenges were posed, the crowds took notice of it, which in turn caused all the fighters to understand that they were going to fight each other. Loken hoped the Bowman would take out several others before he would have to deal with them.

Shale Tarren's voice erupted out across the Colosseum, this time refraining from making a lofty speech. He only spoke four words. "Let the battle begin!"

Lymera sprinted right at him, which was expected. Loken rose up from his crouch then stood in place as he held a closed fist behind his back; loose sands falling out the sides of his closed fist, as he outstretched his left hand towards the warrior woman. His fingers motioning towards himself as a gesture for her to 'bring it'. She must have known that she had entered into striking range of his kicks since she held her open hands like a grappler preparing to grab a limb.

Her forward momentum proved that she was trying to tackle him to the ground. A smirk crossed Loken's lips as he let her enter within two feet of him, then threw the sand he held into her eyes. It disrupted her vision for a moment. But a moment was all Loken needed. His free hand came around to slam his knuckles against the side of her neck.

It did not stop her forward charge, but did slow her charge enough so that when her shoulder charge slammed into him, she did not have enough power to tackle him to the ground. Instead, she started clinch fighting with him with her head down beside his ribs as both her arms wrapped around his waist. "Petch! Again with the sand in the eyes!" Loken reached back to draw his hook sword from its harness. When Lymera wrapped her hands around his waist, they were both over top the blade which meant as he drew it, the blade cut at her forearms.

The pain caused her to scream then grip harder around his hips as she dropped down into a squat. Loken found that to be an odd response, but soon found himself lifted into the air as she threw him into the air. Guiding his body over her head in a belly-to-belly suplex. "Ghaa!" He exclaimed as the center of his back hit the ground first. The fact that he also landed against the flat side of his sword also hut, although any cuts were halted by his armor.

Loken rolled over to quickly stand to his feet as he drew his blade. He ran at the woman as she ran her hands over her eyes in attempt to recover her sight. In what he figured would be a form of irony, he made a downward slash at her right thigh with the outer edge of his hook sword. It sliced through her pants like an axe-head. She yelled in pain as she lashed out blindly with a heavy steel gauntlet covered fist.

Loken took three steps back to avoid it as he waited for the woman to get her sight back. It took a chime for her to stare at him with watery sand agitated eyes. "It would seem you fell for that again." He said with a smirk then motioned his head towards the bowman in the distance. There were several people already taken down from the mans range tactics, leaving only nine other people in the pit.

"You hate me for beating you last time. And the sand I just threw in your eyes. But I have a proposition for you?" Lymera held her hands up like a pugilist in a stance to better use the gauntlets as a shield. She stepped up to him just outside of his striking range. "proposition? I'd rather smash your head into the ground." When she made one quick forward step, followed by a left jab to his face. Loken responded by slashing at her legs with his sword again rather than defend his face.

The upper crest of his tiger hook sword raked across her left thigh; as if he were skinning a potato, ripping her pants to reveal the freshly maimed pink bleeding flesh below. The trajectory of her punch was altered enough that her steel knuckles did not connect with his face, but she did manage to punch him in the shoulder. The hardened leather of his shoulder proctors soaked up most of the damage as he stepped further back away from her.

"Listen to me. I can beat you right now by going after your legs, just like last time. Or... you can help me take down the others, leaving just us as the last fighters standing. At that point, I promise to then fight you hand to hand. I will also agree to not cripple your legs any further. If you do not take this deal; or do decide to take it only to then betray me before we are the last people standing, I rend both your legs from your body. Make your choice."

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[Flashback] Morituri te Salutant, Part III.

Postby Loken on November 25th, 2017, 1:35 am

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Loken was not a man to give a proposition lightly. His tone expressed that he was willing to follow the deal exactly as stated. As the crowds cheered them on as they skirmished, Loken's eye glanced over Lymera's shoulder towards a long haired man who wore a Svefran style of clothing. The raised cutlass in the mans hand caused Loken to point the person out. "Lymera, behind you to the left." She responded by turning in that direction, shocked that he decided to help her.

Loken watched as she punched at the mans sword, using her own fist as a way to block it, then slammed her fist into the Svefra's face. It looked as if she had knocked out several of the mans teeth and dislocated their jaw from the force of the blow.They both shared a small moment of recognition when Lymera turned to look at him. "You've a deal. But I will crush you this time." She said while glancing around to see who was still fighting.

"Besides us and him," Loken said while pointing the hooked tip of the sword at the Svefra groaning in pain on the ground. "That makes for seven other people. Our main threat is the one Bowman. He is keeping his back to the wall and avoiding close combat." Loken stepped closer to Lymera as he made an obviously slow slash of his sword. He then whispered. "Block it." He did not want others to know that they were working together just yet.

She held up the back of her hand to use her gauntlet to fend off the sword. In fake contest of strength, he pressed down as she pressed against it. The fake contest started to turn real as Lymera did not want to seem weak in front of the crowd. She managed to force his sword back to where it lingered an inch away from his face. He strained against her strength as he looked her in the eyes. "Remember our deal?" He said as he lifted one foot to stomp down against her boot; not on the hardened tip of the toe. But at the bend of the ankle where the laces were. It was not a real stomp, but delivered a small jolt of pain. "Don't test me..." He said with a smirk, toying with her pride.

"I do as I like." Loken almost laughed at the childish way she tried to keep her composure. "It looks like no one wants to charge at him." Loken said nudging his head over to the Bowman. He then removed his boot from her ankle as she lessened her pressure on his sword."I'm not asking you to take all of the threat. I'm asking you to join me in charging him from each of his sides. All it takes is one of us to strike him down." Lymera had to roll her ankle a few times to stretch it out before nodding her head.

"You follow the wall to take his right, I'll work around to the his left."

When Loken broke from their falls clash, Lymera hesitated briefly whether to take that moment attack him or not but decided she would rather take him down face to face rather than use a sucker punch. Loken noticed that small moment of contemplation, but gave her a nod once he noticed her fist cease to clinch. "Let go." He said as he turned his back to her. It was a thing he would have never done if he had not struck a deal with her. Loken ran to the wall then followed along it to circle around the other fighters to intercept the Bowman.

Lymera did the exact same thing in the opposite direction. The spectators sitting along the front row all stood to their feet to get a better look at the fighters below, which caused them to all look like a rolling wave. The Bowman was not blind to this as the human in brown leather armor drew an arrow. The Bowman turned to fire an arrow at Loken who appeared to be the biggest threat since he had a sword in hand.

Loken had managed to round the bend of the pit to where he was not running right at his target. He ran three feet away from the wall to avoid where the arrow would strike. Lymera had made it almost halfway towards the Bowman's back. The man seemed set on shooting at Loken as they nocked another arrow, drew back, then released. Loken stopped in his tracks to drop down into a deep crouch. As the arrow flew over Lock's head, the Bowman turned around to fire at Lymera.

The Cultist did not spend to long in his crouch. He took a deep breath to empower his legs muscles to erupt into a sprint towards the man. Lymera had managed to side step the arrow fired at her as she quickly found herself within a meter of the man. Loken managed to enter within that same striking distance as the two partners assaulted at the Bowman at the same time.

Lymera jumped into the air off of her front leg, then lashed out with a right cross punch that landed right against the mans face. And from behind, Loken brought his tiget hook sword up in a duel-hammer grip to bring it down in a diagonal slash towards the back of the Bowman's left leg to decapitate it at the bend of the knee as he ran past. Loken was going to strike at the back of the mans neck, but decided to go low once he saw that Lymera had jumped. Because of this, Lymera had avoided his blade as it passed right under her as he moved past.

When Lymera landed she delivered the coup de gras as she stood over the Bowman. She brought both of her her hands up together in a double axe handle strike to smash his face in like an angry gorilla. The show of unexpected teamwork sent the Colosseum into a flurry of excitement with its deafening cheers. When the two fighters locked eyes with each other, they shared a moment of brotherhood after having shed blood together.

He then broke his gaze to look around the field of combat to see who was still left. "Looks like there are four others left. They don't seem to be willing to fight together, so we can wait until two are left out of the four, then team up on one of them which will leave just us against the last one. " Lymera started to shake the blood and skull bone matter from her gauntlets as she began to scout out the filed for herself.

"Then it's just you and me."

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[Flashback] Morituri te Salutant, Part III.

Postby Loken on November 25th, 2017, 3:12 am

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A long, laborious inhale of air meant to refill his lungs with oxygen felt lie a refreshing and necessary action his body needed to take after that sudden burst of activity. He shifted to hold the tiger hook sword in only his right hand as he pointed out a man and a woman who seemed to be nearing the end of their skirmish. "The woman is next." Loken stated in a matter of fact way. Lymera glanced over at them with a curious expression. "Really? Cause it looks like she is about to lose." She stated back just as blatantly.

"They are both using longswords, but it looks like he has not noticed the dagger on the back of her belt. She might not use it, or she may close in and stab him. I'd do the latter." They both watched with baited breath as the two distant combatants fought. If Loken had put money on the outcome of the fight, he would have won. The raven haired woman and man clashed swords for a moment. That was all it took as she reached back with one hand to draw her dagger to sick it right into the mans gut right up and under the front of the mans breast plate. She repeatedly started to shiv him until the man laid dead on the ground in a heaping mess.

"Cause and effect. Its only logical that she would use it once she was close enough to do so. Otherwise, why bring it?" When turned to look towards Lymera with a smirk that silently meant 'I told you so', she moved to walk over towards the dark haired woman. "Three left, remember." She said with some amount of annoyance in her voice. Loken started to plan out a form of attack with her as he followed a step behind her.

"I'll engage her first since we both have swords. I want you to wait until she is focused on me then attack her from behind." Loken halted a single step when he bent down to grab handful of sand. "I'll use sand as a distraction... a thing I promise not to do to you when we fight fairly." They then switched places as Loken walked past Lymera. He notice that the dark haired swordswoman was a member of the desert nomads called Chaktawe once he had gotten close enough.

Loken spoke a bit of Tawna from his time in Eyktol which caused him to try to get her attention in her native language. "Which tribe do you belong too?" The woman turned around in surprise to focus on Loken as she put her dagger away. She held out one free hand towards her side as she pointed a sword at him. "Suli of the oases. How do you know our language?" The Chaktawe swordwoman said with a hint of curiosity.

Loken stopped walking once he was a foot away from where she would need to lunge to attack him. "Then you know Ahnatep? I am of the Ano who practice logic at the Librum." Loken did not have a reason to speak Tawna in years which meant that he spoke in broken slow segments. The woman gave him a slight nod as if she were remembering it. "The many high towers alone on the coast. I know it." As they were talking, Lymera had managed to circle around the woman's back then began to linger some distance away.

Loken transitioned from Tawna back into common so that the woman could understand what he was about to say clearly. "You are far from home, you should forfeit if you ever wish to see the desert sands again." Loken never tried to appear threatening, but when such a statement was made in a very factual manner it caused the swordwoman to take a step back away from him. "Who says you can defeat me?" He took one step closer to regain the distance he had lost. "I known of no fear what will stop me from cutting you down. If I die, we die together." That was when he pointed the hook sword at her to let her eye the weapon that looked like it consisted of nothing but sharpened blades from hilt to tip.

The Chaktawe swordwoman held out her own blade, tapping the flat side of her sword against his to show that she would not back down. He could see the slightest quiver of fear in her midnight black eyes. That was all he needed as he turned his wrist to press the side of his blade against the flat of her sword then glided it down her sword until the hook wrapped around the shaft of it, then pressed his tiger hook against it to knock it to one side.

Once he felt her stating to push against it, he threw the sand he held in his free hand right into her eyes. As soon as she saw the sand flying at her face, she responded by shutting the second pair of resultant eye lids all Chaktawe had. Loken did not need to blind her, he just wanted to distract her as she focused all of her attention onto him.

Lymera saw the clashing of swords as her single to charge at the Chaktawe with all the might in her powerfully built legs. Loken saw it from over the dark haired woman's shoulder. But the Chaktawe felt it through the black markings that sensed air movements on her fingers. When the woman canted her head to the side to see what it was, Loken lifted his lead right leg to slam his boot heel down against the woman's kneecap with as much force as he could muster.

He then kicked back off of her leg, as if he was trying to kick off of a wall, using her leg as a support to vault himself backwards out of the sword clash. The woman screamed from the force of the kick as it shook her foundation. It also kept her from turning around in time to deal with Lymera as she drove her steel fist right into the back of the woman's head.

As Lymera was about to pummel the back of the woman's head into the round, Loken spoke out in a commanding tone that was almost a yell. "No, we let this one live for now."

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[Flashback] Morituri te Salutant, Part III.

Postby Loken on November 25th, 2017, 4:42 am

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Lymera had just enough time to stop her fists near centimeter away from the unconscious woman's head. She pulled her hands back as she stood over the Chaktawe. "We might be partners for now, but you are not some Endal who thinks they can command me around." In a fit of anger she brought her boot down against the back of the woman's head until thick red liquid started to soak into the sand.

Loken had no real reason to feel bad for the Chaktawe, so put any notion of sympathy out of his head once he realized that she was dead. however, Loken did have a problem with the way Lymera seemed to think they were both equals in this partnership. "What is an Endal?" He asked out of curiosity since it was a word that seemed to enrage her. Lymera made a confused expression as she realized that Loken knew nothing about Wind Reach. "Endal treat Dek like shyte. That is all you need to know." Loken mused over that as he nodded back to her. "Noted, wind reach has a caste system of which Lymera was apparently a... Dek. She is sensitive about this topic which means it will be an effective means of distracting her in combat."

An abrupt explosive fit of madness from the spectators caused Loken to look over at the last two combatants in the pit. A human male wearing a bear pelt caused the crowds to cheer after smashing one of two maces into a fallen man's head. "Bison." Lymera stated as if Loken should have known who the man was. "Explicate?" He spoke as she stood along side him. "What?" The word seemed to leave her dumbfounded as she canted her head to look at the Ano Cultist. "It means to scrutinize and reveal meaning; typically in regards to literary works. I will rectify my question... explain?"

Lymera rolled her eyes at the notion of a scholar being on a battlefield. "Bison is who gave me my first loss here. I then beat him in a following match. We are tired." Loken shifted his sword from one hand to the other as he looked Bison over as the man held their arms up in the air to feed off the crowds cheers. "You want to fight him alone?" It was the first real time that Lymera appeared to be conflicted about fighting someone. She started to think it over for a long moment before cracking her knuckles through the gauntlets.

"I just want him dead. You have a problem with that?" Loken shook his head as he had no reason to keep the man alive. "You can engage him from the front this time as I approach him from behind. I'll allow you some time to fight him alone before I interfere. If you want closure, remove the concept of revenge from the scales of your mind on your own before I do it for you."

Loken turned around to walk towards the pits walls as Lymera went to face Bison at the center of it. He kept his eyes on them as he held out one hand to glide it along the wall. It looked like the two of them were conversing about something. From their body language along, it looked like they were taunting each other into making the first move. When they started to fight, Lymera managed to get in close the the bear pelted human to tackle them to the ground. It served as an effective way to disarm the man as they both rolled around on the ground.

Their fight into something that looked more like a bar brawl as Loken walked towards them. Bison managed to pulled her head down into their armpit, placing her into a headlock while she was mounted on top of him. Lymera started to slam her knuckles against each of the mans sides. The grunts bison made sounded like she had broken several of his ribs after those repeated blows.

Loken approached them from the front as they laid on the ground. Bison's view of Loken was upside down as the Ano Cultist stood over him. He held out his hook sword to press the curve of the blade down against Bison's forehead. He pressed the blade down against his head with just enough force to etch it slightly into his skull. Not fully, but just enough for Bison to let go of Lymera's head and focus on Loken.

"Finish it, Lymera." Those words triggered Bison's fight or flight as the man reached up to grasp at the blade of Loken's tiger hook sword. The man's hands started to bleed as he tried to remove it from his forehead. Lymera responded by placing both of her hands around Bison's neck in attempt to choke the life out of him. Bison removed one hand to try to pull one of her arms off of his neck, but it was a futile attempt. Bison's eyes started to bulge a his wind pipe was crushed.

Loken removed the sword from Bison's head as Lymera watched the life drain from his eyes. As Lymera reveled in that moment of triumph, Loken tossed his sword aside to ready himself to complete his task. At the moment when Bison's body went limp in Lymera's arms was when Loken shifted into a fighting stance. The red headed woman barely had time to look up as Loken kicked out with his right foot. The length of his shin bashed against her neck from a high angle in a downward cutting kick. The swinging mass of his shin bone compressed against her carotid artery with a violent force that forced the spinal column of her neck to rapidly bend around his leg.

Lymera was sent toppling to one side as she fell off of Bison's body. The kick did not kill her, but her mind was sent into a daze as she also felt like her neck had been broken. "As agreed. We were the last combatants, I did not strike your legs, and did not throw dirt in your eyes. " The kick did not break her neck, it simply stunned her long enough that she had effectively become a noncombatant.

The sound of Shale Tarren's voice cause the crowd to quite down as the Kelvic started to speak. "And the victor of today's context... LOCK!" The announcement was greeted with a mixed response of cheers, begrudging claps, and jeers from people who's favorite fighters lost. He stared down at Lymera with hardly any sympathy or mercy. She was a tool he no longer needed.

In one final gesture to the crowd, he raised his sword high into the air as he exited the pit.

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[Flashback] Morituri te Salutant, Part III.

Postby Madeira Dusk on January 1st, 2018, 8:42 pm

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Loken

Skills
  • Planning: 2xp
  • Tactics: 2xp
  • Wrestling: 1xp
  • Unarmed Combat: 3xp
  • Negotiation: 1xp
  • Persuasion: 1xp
  • Acting: 1xp
  • Observation: 3xp
  • Running: 1xp
  • Weapon- Tiger Hook Sword: 2xp
  • Logic: 1xp

Lores
  • Negotiation: making allies
  • Acting: faking combat
  • Lore of Wind Reach hiarchy

Awards & Retribution


Notes
Another great action-packed thread! You have a very clean writing style that I enjoy immesnly. I do want to say that as Loken is 34xp and 36xp in his weapon and unarmed cobat skill, respectivly, I'd like to see him lose a bout or even just struggle more when in a pit full of battle hardened warriors. But on the whole a great flashback in a criminally underutilized location. Cheers!

If you have questions, or see anything I've missed, please PM me. :)
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