Completed An unexpected connection (Nyaella)

[Revy Hiroe]

40th day, Winter 511AV It was still night in Taloba when Revy suddenly woke up, bathing in sweat. The cause of this was a nightmare she had. Phantoms chased her around in Sunberth, phantoms of those who became widows before they could get married, kids who lost their mothers and fathers to her blades and fathers and mothers who lost their children because of her. Lately those nightmares seemed to come back faster, stronger and alot more frequent. Clacking her tongue, she cursed at herself for being so weak. Why would she allow those people to haunt her? It wasn't her fault that they came across her, or that she had to fight them off to do her job. After all, she had to eat right? If she allowed those memories to keep haunting her, sooner or later she would consider dropping her job. But what could she do then to have a more stable income? She wasn't the teacher type, nor was she someone who'd just settle with a man. This human woman would rather kick the living shyke out of him, before he'd get the chance to get on her good side. After turning and twisting, the mercenary found out that she couldn't get to sleep anymore anyway. So she got out of bed and dressed herself. As usual she bind off her chest using a piece of cloth. After that she got her sleeveless black vest, her pants and boots. The gloves and her cloak weren't necessary, it was way too hot in Taloba for them. Finishing her clothes was the black leather belt she had. It had some small cuts and scrapes on it already from her sword. Having finished dressing, she then walked to her weapons. Her cold iron sword accompanied by her father's towershield and her newly acquired glaive. Until now she hadn't really taken the effort to try and learn how to wield that, so today would be different. Walking out with her glaive carried on her shoulder, the shield on her back and the sword naked in her belt, Revy made her way to the training grounds. As usual she could feel some myrians eyes burning holes into her back. She had gotten used to it by now. Perhaps they would accept her better if she would be able to beat a 'marked' myrian, those who carried Myri's gnosis. "I need a fight.... A good one at that.", she thought to herself. But unlucky for her, there weren't many sparring partners at all. Or at least none that were interested in fighting her. Her temper was shortening by the hour and it was a few bells after noon that she finally decided to just walk onto the grounds. Her face was like thunder, her temper much worse then that already. "Petching myrians declining my challenges just because I'm human.", she grumbled. To others it could seem that she was out for a kill, when she was just looking for a good spar.

[Nyaela]

OOCSorry for the long wait!

Nyaela dipped the rag in cool water before wringing it out and gently placing it on her sister's forehead, murmuring softly to soothe the poor girl as she lapsed into yet another frightful nightmare, sweat rolling from her feverish skin. The fever had started last night and as of yet it showed no signs of breaking. Nyaela hated herself for it, but she found herself wishing that her sister would give up this time. It was getting increasingly more painful to watch her slip into these sicknesses not knowing whether she would come out alright. And, for their mother, it was worse than having another daughter die on her. Still, she stayed by her sister's side all night, working to keep the fever down until her mother came and relieved her. It was all she could do to stumble over to the wall and fall asleep there.

Mid-morning came, and with it, a bright sunshine that went past the windows and shone brightly over her closed eyelids, giving the area around her a surreal feel, almost similar to the bright dreams it gave her so that when she woke up she was a little disoriented at first. She stopped a yawn and glanced upwards, annoyed as the bright sun beat down upon her. Her lack of sleep only added to the depression of her sister’s condition, and the relentless sun was no help, either. It was days like this, when she really felt helpless that a good round or two in the training ground of Taloba made her feel alive. She had never enjoyed fighting for a need, but the discipline the training required was a welcome change. She could control the ring, and if she didn't win, at least she'd know what to do next time.

She slipped on common Myrian garb, donning leggings and pulling her simple light-armour tunic over them, securing it with a belt before slipping on her boots and going through a stretching routine. One she felt sure that she was ready to train for a bit, she left the room silently, opening the door and walking outside. Nyaela strolled to the training grounds, ignoring the mock weapons rack near the entrance and walking into the actual grounds, looking for a suitable combatant to practice her hand-to-hand with.

As she searched the area she caught sight of a familiar face. Familiar, yet uncommon as well, she remembered meeting the human before, though the memory was laced with embarrassment. She squinted her eyes, trying to place a name to the face, but found she couldn’t. Although, truth be told, she honestly couldn’t remember if they’d ever gotten that far when they’d first met either. It seemed like they were both being avoided: a human out of place in a great Myrian city, and a Myrian slaver, as much a stranger to most of the people in the ring as the human. Eyeing the big weapon the woman held in her hand and wondering if she meant to spar with a real weapon, Nyaela crossed her arms, "Looking for someone to spar with?" She called out in heavily accented Common. "If I’m correct, it seems like we could both use a partner."

[Revy Hiroe]

Hearing a familiar voice, the mercenary turned around with her killer look. Her mood was foul, if not hungry for blood to be shed. Her eyes were almost blank as she said: "Ah, it's that slaver that couldn't even hold onto one slave. You think you can hold me off if you can't even do that?", she taunted the other, "But if you insist, I'll show you the corners of the ring." Revy walked over to the side of the ring, placing her glaive against the wall and dropping her shield. She remembered from when she fought Siiri that marked myrians were quite a bit faster then non-marked were. This meant that using the glaive or her shield right now wasn't an option. She didn't have any experience with the long-handled weapon just yet and her shield's weight would slow her down too much. "A word of caution, I fight for real. I don't do mock battles. It's either a real fight, or no fight for me.", the human said as she drew her longsword. She knew by now that here stuff was safe. Myrians were apparently, and luckily, not the same as humans. If it were a human city, she couldn't have left her things unattended like that.

[Nyaela]

At the woman's taunt, Nyaela could only force a mock smile, gritting her teeth and cursing inwardly. "I don't think you've seen enough of me to judge my prowess, human. I'd be glad to prove you wrong, though."

She followed the human over to the side of the ring, tilting her head from side to side until she heard a crack. "A real battle, hmm? I don't know how you humans fight your battles, but I'll show you a real Myrian fight." She was about to comment that she didn't think the human would last that long, but she held her tongue in check, making note of the way the woman held her longsword. She was obviously experienced. Suddenly, the day didn't seem that dull. "Goddess, let's see if I am worthy enough to call upon your strength," she murmured softly.

She slowly worked her way near the human in a semicircle and stood a little ways from her, crossing her arms and waiting for the human to make the first move, having nothing on hand that she needed to place outside the ring. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she ran through fight scenarios in her mind and she calmed herself, allowing her muscles to loosen so that she could react faster, raising her hands slightly and curling her fingers into fists. She shifted her weight so that she could move swiftly one way or another in case the human preferred a blind charge and smirked. "Ready when you are."

[Revy Hiroe]

The mercenary gave Nyaela a rather devious smile as she replied: "I've already seen that, thank you. So no need to hold back as I intend not to either." She swung her sword a couple times round to loosen her right wrist. She knew that to win this, she had to be able to react fast and precise. But that didn't discourage the human woman in the least, it was actually firing her up even more. From how the myrian stood, Revy couldn't make out if she was skilled or not, so for now she'd play a bit cautious. Better not make a mistake like last time she fought a myrian and lose fast. She was planning to win this fight, prove that she was worthy of being amongst the myrians. "If I win this, Myri, the honor is all for you.", she thought to herself. The human mercenary paced sidewards, trying to get a better position from where she could possibly launch an attack. Yet she couldn't find a good opportunity. The memory of her beating from Siiri was still all to fresh in her memory. "Not gonna use a weapon? You sure you can beat me then?", she tried to taunt her opponent.

[Nyaela]

Nyaela took the human's few moments of readying herself for the fight to properly inspect her. She seemed ... cautious, which was not something Nyaela would have expected from a warrior. Probably her best interest to remain unpredictable then. Was she sure she could beat the woman? Within the few seconds she'd examined her it didn't seem to Nyaela that her limited expertise in fighting could last long against the woman who held the longsword like it was second nature to her. Still ... giving up and accepting defeat was way worse than actually being defeated she knew. And she still ached for a fight. Unpredictable it was.

She smirked at the woman, "Weapons often affect the battlefield as much as a pebble affects the course of a river. I'd have thought a woman such as yourself would know this."

The slight shift in her feet even as she finished her retort gave only a second's notice before she sprang into a run, charging at the human and twisting around just at the last minute. She raised the arm nearest to the woman as she spun, and aimed her elbow at the woman's face, pushing off of the ground with her foot to add more force. Her other hand followed through as she finished her twirl, fingers curled into a tight fist to slam into the human's stomach in case the first attack was unsuccessful, hoping to push the human away from her so that Nyaela would be able to dart back away from the range of her sword before it could reach her. Her actions were more slow and calculated than they were swift, though, mainly acted out to gauge the human's reaction time, meaning that they weren't so hard to block or deflect, really, but should one of them land, they would pack quite the punch. She hoped the risk she just took in charging headfirst like a blind fool was worth it.

[Revy Hiroe]

The mercenary didn't quite understand what the myrian woman implied. She wasn't all that philosophical, nor did she want to be. "I don't get what you mean, but you'll lose just the same.", she sneered in reply. Her smile had gained something vile, as if she already knew the outcome of the battle and it wouldn't be in favor of her opponent. Revy had already suspected the woman to rush in. It would be the only logical option for her if she wanted to actually win the battle. She countered it by stepping in herself, making sure to keep track of the other's body movement to try and anticipate what she was about to do. It resulted in seeing how the woman went straight for Revy's face, which she herself countered by diving under the woman. The human followed this dodge up by putting the tip of her longsword up, aimed to cut the left leg of the myrian open, though she would just make a light cut as a 'warning'. The transition from her dodge into a counterattack went rather smooth, not too much that it'd be undodgeable, but it was going to be hard.

[Nyaela]

Somehow her set stance didn't stop her from almost pitching over the woman just as Revy ducked underneath her hand, with the amount of weight she'd put into that blow. It didn't make much of a difference, though; the human ducked under her hand, and unless she could twist or disappear, it would be hard for her to get away from Nyaela this time. Quick as a snake, she reached down to grab the woman as she moved underneath her arm and hold her and slam her knee up where Revy should be. The shift in her leg made the cut that would have scraped across her thigh draw a ragged line of red along her shin instead. She wasn't expecting that, but the shock only put more force into her knee as she lifted it to get it away from the longsword.

"Oh she has a bite, our little human," she quipped lightly, "But is it strong enough?"

[Revy Hiroe]

oocSorry for the late reply, couldn't image the situation that's going on right now.

The grab by the myrian came unexpected and as such Revy wasn't able to react in time to the knee to be able to reduce the impact. The collision of the knee with her chest knocked the air out of her lungs and she could feel that she had at least two ribs bruised. "Darnit, shouldn't take this woman too lightly., she thought to herself. The mercenary wormed her way out of the hold made by the myrian after having taken the blow. She breathed deeply to get the air back into her lungs. Though it hurt quite a bit to breath like that with her chest as it is, Revy knew that having enough breath was required for a standard spar. "Watch your tongue, failure of a slaver, or I'll make it a little shorter.", she sneered back. "Now I have at least felt a bit of her strength and I have to say that I'm no match for that kind of brute force. I'll just have to rely on my weapon then.", she then thought. Revy then suddenly started to run at Nyaela, head low as if in an attempt to knock her down to the ground, but just before she made it to the myrian she swung her sword, she had been dragging behind her, up from below. After it reached the high point above her head, she grabbed it with both hands and then brought it down again, using all her strenght. The speed of the weapon was enough to cleave flesh and cut bones, the fight had gone more serious for her.

[Nyaela]

Although Nyaela didn't lack in confidence, she could not help but feel relief at being able to land her own blow quickly after the human's scrape on her shin. She shuffled back a few steps as the woman regained her breath, breathing slowly to calm her own racing heart. "My dear girl, you have much to learn in the way of threats. Words are wind. Actions are power. If a little banter gets you so worked up, why don't you show me you mean what you say? You want to be accepted by us, but you do not try to understand our ways."

She expected the woman to run at her, and she spread her feet apart, holding her arms out to brace herself against the attack and push back if she could. What she didn't foresee became obvious as something whistled through the air, causing her to twist away just as the woman's sword came at her. Myri's grace granted her speed to keep it from carving her nose off, but a bright red line now marred her face from the bottom left of her chin to just past the bridge of her nose. Her arms snapped up to grab Revy's hands before they descended, doing her best to push back against Revy's blow for a moment. For a millisecond she grinned at the human in approval, her arms raised against Revy's, "Our threats are made with blood and pain," she whispered softly as fresh blood made trails down her face.

"Besides, we don't make threats. We make promises." She added just before she took advantage of Revy's hands above her head and her shortness, pushing off of the ground for strong leverage in an attempt to slam her forehead in Revy's vulnerable face.