[Flashback]What Color is Blue Bruised?[Kendoka Sasaran]

[Rykanis Dakshata]

11 Spring 495 Rykanis came into the large room that was the training area, and quickly grabbed a lakan. A wooden one anyways. While all it would do was bruise most of the time, a real one might just hack of an appendage... And since this was training, that was not a good idea... Still though, it did well to simulate a real weapon, even if it was lighter. It was more or less right in regard to shape and use, to the real curved and warped blade, and safer! Rykanis charged in head on to the field of battle, taking on one person, who was using shield and longsword combo. Rykanis dove at him, but had his weapon blocked by the wooden shield, and then got knocked in the gut by the wooden sword. He dropped to his knees for a moment, trying to catch his breath... Maybe someone with a lakan like him would be better to fight... So once he caught his breath, he stood up, and looked for someone to initiate a fight with, using the same weapon as him.

[Imass]

Imass was always in Kendoka Sasaran. He took the path of the warrior seriously. The bulk of his daily regiment was training here in the dojo of his ancestors. He needed to prepare for his Rite of Passage. He didn't want to just survive the test, he wanted to demolish it! The theme of this year’s group youngster seemed to be "ultimate warrior". The young Akalak had many rivals among his generation and it bread strict competition. Therefore, Imass was there to get stronger.

The naive Akalak found himself training in the simple arched room.

Just coming off lunch break, Imass clenched the well-worn wooden Lakan. He would only be able to use the Lakan during the Trial, so it was imperative he trained with the weapon.

Quickly entering the circle, the youngster tried to jump into a fight, but all the opponents he wanted to fight were already in duels. No one seemed to be free for fighting until he spotted a tall, lean Akalak on one knee. He was possibly a generation or two older than him.

Imass didn't hesitate anymore. This was Kendoka Sasaran not some kind of lounge! Rushing forward he confronted the Lakan wielding man. He said not a word, but merely raised his own wooden Lakan to the fighting position.

Imass waited for his new opponent to strike first.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

Was Rykanis the greatest warrior ever? No. And he knew it. He knew his weaknesses, and worked on them. To be honest, he would rather spend the day out sneaking, watching people, gathering intel, than fighting. Yet another part of him reveled in the battle, and fighting, and the chance to use his body as it was intended and designed for. To say the least he was conflicted. At the moment, his main side was in control, and he was all about offense. He attacked. He defended by attacking. He leaped and hacked and slashed. He was not to subtle. Not like his other side, which was all about tactics, maneuvering, and would rather slide the blade in someone back while they were turned, than openly fight. As these conflicting thoughts raced through his mind, he looked around, and quickly found an opponent. Or should he say, the opponent found him, as he was approaching Rykanis, ready to fight. Clearly he was not to skilled, only using one lakan, and seemed at a closer glance to be younger than him. Not that it really mattered, he would fight all the same as if he had been an aged master of combat. Rising partially, and settling into his fighting position, Rykanis did a once over on his partner... Then he took a step forward, and launched off of it, coming right at the Akalak, swiping his own weapon right at his chest, forcing him to react in order to not be hit. He would follow up with an additional two swipes, quick light ones, aiming at his arms.

[Imass]

The dueling partner that Imass had chosen was much more confident that him. The way he carried himself and his weapon was evidence to this. The purple skinned opponent got into his fighting stance with ease. Although it was basically a conventional stance, it was tailored fit somehow. Imass was about to experience a tough opponent. It wasn't every day that a young Akalak could fight someone of much higher skill level; he would take this experience to heart.

Imass's opponent attacked immediately without hesitation. A swift wooden Lakan came slicing towards Imass's chest. The attack was deep and there was no options but avoid the weapon. Imass pivoted from one foot to another, backing out of the weapon's range. Without giving Imass a chance to recover, Rykanis followed up his initial attack with two jabs aiming at Imass's arms. The youngster twisted his body further to dodge the first slash, then he brought his own weapon up and parried the second strike by slashing in the same direction as Rykanis.

Reversing the momentum of his parry, Imass attempted to strike at his opponents shoulder. Imass tried hard to make sure it was one fluid movement so he would have the advantage, but being so inexperienced the attack was not executed as planned and he ended up false striking. That meant the slash was awkward and not at full strength.

Imass then instinctively tried to reset his stance.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

It was a bit hard to tell really how skilled someone was. It had seemed to him, that likely this other akalak was either not to skilled, or at least not to much more than him. Or perhaps it had simply been luck, that had saved him from being struck. Though really, it seemed he was not even really fighting, simply running away. So far he had not even used his weapon, and was just dodging and running away. But unless he was highly skilled in such defensive acrobatics manuevers, he would get hit eventually. Luck would only let him avoid the wooden weapon for so long. Not that it would end the fight. Rykanis well expected to be hit a good bit, and expected to hit his foe a good bit, that was just what was expected of such a rough spar as Akalaks did. If you weren't bruised a good bit, you had not really been trying. He barely avoided the heavy strike to the chest, by jumping back out of range, and more or less did the same to one of the strikes. Though he did manage to initiate finally, and block his second strike aimed at his arms, with his practice weapon. The thunk of wood on wood rang out, for a moment. Finally he was taking the offensive, and tried to strike at Rykanis. But he pulled up his wooden lakan, and blocked the blow with the blade of his own, allowing it to hold there weapons in place for a moment, as he bared down his weight. He held this for a moment in the battle, though in the quick paced fight they were having, it seemed like much longer. He suddenly pulled back on the lakan, and took a step back, letting his opponents weapon drop, before launching forward off of his foot again, this time trying to stab him right in the chest. He would follow up that, by making a few more slashes, and then kicking with his right leg, to try and knock out one of his opponents legs out from under him.

[Imass]

Locking blades with the Akalak was not fun. Imass would feel the weight of his opponent bearing down on him. It took every muscle in his arching back in order to push back. A moment later he suddenly pulled back his Lakan, which surprised Imass. He was under the impression that Rykanis would lean longer. Not only did the youngster's weapon dropped, but so did his body. Off balanced, Imass was not in a position to see his opponent’s next strike.

A piercing cough escaped Imass's mouth as the blunt tipped wood weapon stabbed him right in the middle of the chest. It immediately knocked the wind out of him. It felt as if his lungs collapsed into the center of his stomach. The huge amount of pain radiating from his chest was all he could think about in his daze. Before he could even react, more blows came from Rykanis. Three slashes coming across Imass's body would hit him on the arms. The pain in his chest triumphed everything though. The slashes he ate in the arms cause relatively less damage that the strike to his chest. Rykanis finished it off with a swooping kick to Imass's legs. The inexperienced fighter fell to the floor in disgrace.

Pain spread through his chest like wildfire. He couldn't breathe yet. He shut his eyes and dropped his weapon, waving his arm for Rykanis to wait a minute. Placing his hand on his chest, he felt that a bruise would be forming on his chest in the next few hours. After several seconds he was finally able to control his breathing again. Rising to one knee, the Akalak spread his arms wide and began to regulate his breathing as fast as possible. He felt painful red marks on his arms and leg. Imass would deal with the pain; however he wouldn't let one failure set him back.

Breathing in deeply and out slowly for about twenty to thirty seconds got him back on track. Although his chest still ached and his limbs felt sore, he would not stop. Standing on his feet again, Imass picked up his Lakan and beaconed Rykanis to come again. Although the youngster was trying in earnest to get better, his gesture may have come off as cocky to Rykanis.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

Now things were getting interesting. His first feint, of dropping back after pushing lakan to lakan, and locking him into place, had worked, setting him off balance. Rykanis took the initiative here, and pressed the attack, with a series of blows that were very effective. Due to a combination of his surprise at how effective they were, and his flurry of attacks being timed so close together, he did not even realize he had scored a good blow, until the Akalak ended up on the floor sprawled. The blunted tip of his wooden lakan had been pretty effective, and knocked him in the chest, knocking the wind from his chest. He managed to block the rest of the blows from striking his torso, by letting them hit his arms, but they would still be painful. Though in a real fight, that might have saved his life for another few seconds. He was totally unprepared for the leg sweep though, and ended up down, though not permanently. He didn't have to wave Rykanis off for him to get the gist, and to take a few paces back, giving him room and time to recover. As the man rose back to his feet, Rykanis grinned at him, getting excited at how busy this spar was, how action packed. Though he knew soon enough it would be his turn to take some blows. Though he already had been knocked around a bit, in the spar just previous to this one. As he waved for him to attack again, Rykanis nodded. "Sorry about that, I got a bit carried away on my last strike. I am Rykanis by the way." He waited a few moments for him to reply, before diving in, slashing at his right side, and then attempting to punch him right in the left shoulder, with his free hand. After all, the Akalak fighting style was a unique fusion of armed lakan, and unarmed fist combat. After that, he was about to make a kick, when he tripped up a bit while stepping forward, ending up staggering partially, and leaving himself a bit open, due to his mistake.

[Imass]

Imass noticed that his opponent was grinning now. The youngster did not get mad though. If he had successfully landed the same blows Rykanis had, then he would be grinning too. Imass could not afford to get dropped again. Although the warrior was very new to the martial arts, he had that warrior's pride already; it was part of his nature. He would do everything in his power to be successful in the practice duel. If this had been his Rite of Trial he would have died instantly. He would not let that happen.

His opponent then made formal apologies and introduced himself. Imass responded in a cheerful, genuine tone, "No apologies needed Rykanis. I am known as Imass." The young Akalak could not show his superior that he was weak. Imass tried hard to produce the image of strength despite the growing pain in his chest. Although the pain was nothing serious, he could feel that it would only get worse as the week went on.

Rykanis dived in Lakan first, slashing at Imass's right side then punching with his left hand. Imass had no time to think so he worked on instinct. Raising his right hand to his shoulder, Imass blocked the left hook by intercepting it with his sword hand. Rykanis's Lakan stick landed perfectly on his side, however on pure instinct alone the young Akalak tried to grab Rykanis's sword arm. Ignoring the sharp pain on his torso for a moment, the novice clamped his arm down in attempt to stop any incoming onslaught from his opponent’s wooden blade.

It was no use though. Imass did not have the will or the training to be able to hold on to his arm much longer. Disengaging the enemy, Imass made an attempt to reset his stance and try something new. He did not feel like fighting any closer than they already where. Rykanis attempted to throw another kick, but for some reason he tripped on his own step. Imass was a novice, but he wasn't born yesterday. Capitalizing on this moment, Imass attacked with a downward cut of his Lakan towards Rykanis's neck attempting to hit him fast and hard.

[Rykanis Dakshata]

In reality, Rykanis was simply smiling, as he was excited to have a good spar like this, though clearly it was misconstrued, and his partner thought he was smiling over having landed his blows. If he had realized that, he probably would have explained, not wanting to insult him, but alas, he did not know what the other Akalak thought . Imass. That was his foes name. Well, it was a sign of respect really, to learn the name of the one you were facing. If he had not taken the time to learn his name, it would have shown he found him as insignificant. But he did not, and could see the burgeoning warriors fire within him, even if he was a bit inconsistent. As he moved in for the attack once more, of course he could not expect things to go as well. He managed to block his blow from his fist, but was still caught by the slash to his side. In a real battle, that might have lost him the bout. Better to stop the incoming blade, than a simple fist. Before he could pull away his blade though, Imass snatched and grabbed his lakan holding arm. As he tried to wrench it free, and move to kick though, he made a fatal stumble, tripping up a bit as he moved... No matter how skilled you were, everyone had bad luck at times, and messed up. And he was certainly no exception to that. As the training lakan came at him, he slipped further, landing on his knees. But part of the way there, and got slammed right in the eye by the blow. Rykanis fell back onto his rear, his grip slipping and he dropped his lakan, as he let out a "Ugh..." of pain. He had gotten smacked pretty good right in the eye... His eye was watering like crazy, and he was sure soon enough it would swell up, and he would have a black eye, making him more or less one eyed until it healed. "Petch... Right in the eye... " He muttered, slowly trying to regain his feet. With his one good eye, and holding his left hand over his injured one, he looked around... But could not find were he had dropped his weapon. "Ummm.... Did you see were I dropped my practice lakan?"

[Imass]

Imass reveled in the successful attack. It felt good to finally land a blow, although he was not aiming at Rykanis's eye. Grinning ear to ear, the youngster took a few steps back to give his opponent some room. Imass would keep his joy hidden though. It would be rude and unnecessary for the novice to make fun of his training partner.

Imass offered a genuine apology and a helping hand to Rykanis, "I hit your eye, but I was aiming for you shoulder. I apologize." Imass held his hand in front of Rykanis to help him up.

The young Akalak was also tired by now. Although that had been fighting for only a minute, a thing coat of sweat shined on the blue skin of the young man. Coupled with the previous strike to the chest, Imass was also breathing heavily. He hoped that his opponent would continue training because he didn't want to stop until he had not one drop of energy left in his body. He wanted to push himself.

Regardless if Rykanis accepted his helping hand, Imass then proceeded to pick up his opponent's wooden Lakan. Imass handed it to him firmly and looked him in the eye. Imass offered his opponent words of support and good will, "You are a much better fighter than me. Do not let my lucky strike bring you down. Shall we continue training?"

Imass raised his Lakan and reset his footwork and waited until Rykanis was ready to continue.