Completed [The Anthonius Fighter's Pit] Boot, Drill, and Rain

[Ethan Ironhorse]

5th bell on 17th of Fall, 513 AV Anthonus Fighter Pits Ethan was wearing his fur line hide leather breast piece as he started running the circuit around the Pits. The armorer had finally delivered several pieces of armor to Ethan the other day. It was a feeling of great pride and anxiety that Ethan was training today. Most people in the pits didn’t train with armor, and in truth it made sense. Ethan wasn’t even into the first quarter of a circuit and doing push-ups as he realized just how heavy and hot the armor was. Well heavy was a relative term, the breast plate and shoulders couldn’t have weighed more than five pounds. Yet, the fur lined hood trapped Ethan body heat while preventing chaffing from the tough hide edges. Granted the leather was tough and new, as Ethan moved, he was side stepping across the pit working his hip muscles as he felt the first drop of rain hit is head. Ethan put up the fur lined hood and continued to run the circuit. The rain started to come down softly at first. Plat, plat on his head as Ethan felt the crunch of the gravel below his shoes. Ethan got to the wall and saw the stone that was slightly extended, Ethan jumped up and gripped the stone with his finger. He had gotten fairly decent doing pull ups on the stone, but with his armor he was only able to get to four before losing his grip. The shoulders of the leather pauldrons were restricting the use of some of his shoulder muscles, due to the restricting he wasn’t able to do full extensions and it was putting strain on other muscles. Still, this was supposed to be training, so Ethan jumped back up and did as many as he could, till he was forced to jog to the next stop. The rain was coming down harder now and Ethan could smell the tannins that were coming off the leather armor. Ethan felt like it was a shame in a way, his armor was just brand new and already he was going to get it marked and scuffled. Of course, Ethan also wanted it to be that way, the last thing he wanted was to be traveling and looking like a farmer that had somehow purchased new armor. In the end, Ethan allowed himself the feeling of grief at the lost of the ‘newness’ of his armor. Ethan reached the next stopping point and started doing sit ups. Of course he couldn’t really do sit ups in armor, the chest piece constricted the movement of his stomach and in the end he felt his lips pulling and releasing to do any movement at all. His hips were on fire as he reached thirty. Far from his best of fifty seven in the past seven days, yet Ethan pushed on. He was only half way through the first circuit and he had at least two more full ones to go. Ethan stood in the middle of the pit with his hands on his knees trying to get breath. Ethan took a look at his armor, he saw that the majority of it was beading up and keeping dry, the fur was wet of course and was smelling a little bit, but the real concern was the small damp leather spots that were starting. He had talked to the armor long and hard about caring for his armor, and seeing that the hide was become wet he knew that he needed to go back to his room and remove the armor. Once dry, he could then water proof, wax, and polish the armor again. Ethan took a deep breath and began running back to his apartment. By the time, Ethan had gotten back to the pit, the rain had been coming down so hard that a one inch standing puddle seemed to be above the gravel all around the pit. Only a few die hard fighters were at the pit today, working out with swords against each other or punching the wooden hitting posts. Ethan himself went down to the pit, feeling water splash and soak slightly into his boots as he went over to a hitting post. Gerald had setup several training posts, and this one was considered the beginners. Leather padding over rope was placed around the post so that a fighter could strength their knuckles, elbows, shins and knees by hitting the padding. Eventually, after the skin and bones toughen would graduate to leather on wood and then wood. Ethan had a long time before that, so instead Ethan worked on the combinations that Ser Titus had taught him. Hitting the padding, he felt a small flash of pain but nothing like the first day. His knuckles were already toughening up. Left jab, right cross, knee, kick with the shin for block, switch. Ethan worked on speed and endurance for a bell, hitting the post over and over again. He knew how much force it took to feel a slight impact and toughen him up, while not bruising or breaking bones. The rain began to lessen and finally stop after Ethan had completed his workout routine on the training post. Ethan had removed his shirt during the training and hung it up on one of the weapon racks. His shirt was soaked as well as his pants, but as far as Ethan could tell he would have another couple of bells before the rain started back up. So he started once again on the circuit of running and exercises. Ethan had been working on trying to do the running circuit at least twice a day, but the last few days he had completed it three times, and though his body would take a while to harden and toughen, his dedication was paying off. It was a little later then noon bell when Ethan completed he laps. Tried, Ethan was at least grateful that his pants and shirt had dryed out. One of the fighters, Lucas, had started to help Ethan practice his combos and sparring, seeing Ethan getting dress the larger fighter came over and laughed. “What because of bit of rain you are going to do half a day?” Ethan laughed, Lucas always like to boost that he could have made it in the Knighthood, he only problem was that the other recruits would never be able to keep up with him. Shaking his head, Ethan spoke, “Nay, Lucas, I need to go grab something to eat and then return. All this running and hitting stuff makes me tired and hungry. Besides, I need a rest before trying to take on you. I swear it seemed like yesterday you were throwing your punches faster.” Lucas laughed, “That’s because I was, you have been getting faster as of late. Maybe not as fast as me, but who is?” Ethan snorted at the man’s boost. There were several fighters faster and stronger then Lucas. However, Lucas was generous when it came to couching and fighting, Ethan was learning a little bit here and there, and as long as Ethan didn’t enter any of the Spinning Coin matches Lucas was always willing to help him practice the basics. Ethan was happy that the fighter was helping him, in the first several days, Ethan had fighters come up saying they would help just to beat him. He had been going through Krolar poultice quite a bit till Lucas had come by. During one of their practice spars, Lucas had asked Ethan why he was coming close to everyday. Ethan had said that come the end of Winter, he needed to head out to Zeltiva, and though it wasn’t as dangerous as supposedly Sunberth, it was dangerous enough that Ethan didn’t want to get killed. So Lucas laughed and said that he was too serious and that Ethan had been training to go to war. Yet for Ethan, there was no difference between going to a different city and going to war. Syliras had been his home for all his life, his mother use to tell him tales of other cities where criminals and murders walked the streets, and if he wasn’t a good boy the Knighthood would ship him off to one of those cities. Ethan smiled at the memory, “Come on Lucas, even I know that the Knighthood doesn’t allow pretty naked ladies down in the pit. So either you stop trying to find one of those girls you boost about, or you have learned the trick of invisibility!” Lucas began laughing loudly. Ethan saw that the man was missing quite a few teeth from all the brawls, and wondered how many would he lose before leaving. Ethan waved goodbye to his friend and took off to his home. Feeling tired and hungry, Ethan opened up his stew pot sat down and ate his lunch.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan walked into his apartment and first checked on the armor. The wet spots had dried by left small stains on the armor that Ethan could use to wax and polish it. The fur had dull the odor of wet dead animal and had Kept its softness once dried. He chewed on his lip, he was goin got have to find out a way to wash and clean his armor. The exercise this morning had him sweating, as well as, rain soaking the outside. Now Ethan could work the outside of the leather easily enough, but besides total replacement he wasn’t sure about what he could do for the soft leather insides and the padding. Taking a bowl, Ethan filled it up half way with stew, and began to eat. He knew he was hungry and probably should have something lighter, but the stew was all he could afford. After eating his half bowl, Ethan waited, he didn’t want to be full but he wanted to make sure that he had taken the edge off his hunger. Pouring a cup of water, Ethan drank trying to fill himself with the liquid, since his experience showed how much he would sweat and that his body had started requiring more water. Ethan had to fill the pitcher every night. Ethan sat there thinking about it all, and feeling very tired. In order to think about resting, Ethan had answered the bulletin add to hunt down the possible Leecher. Ethan didn’t know much about the discipline, only what he had read in Devandil’s book and that was just a small little paragraph. Ethan took the time to slowly began to mediate, after talking with Devandil again he had finally told Ethan about the breathing exercises were a form of mediation which was needed for early students of shielding. Ethan hadn’t realized just how much the man had kept from him. He felt like a fool to have trusted Devandil so much, when he had first showed him how to shield. Devandil had given him nothing but the basics, and several concepts that were misleading, all as a lesson that magic was dangerous and only fools trusted free lessons. Ethan had spent close to ten days recovering from overgiving, and had actually worked in Devandil’s shop as he recovered. From his experience, he learned a great many things, including glyphing, but at least Devandil had answered a few questions. The most important one being that you should gain a mage’s trust before asking them to share their knowledge. Ethan sat down and painted the glyph of Daeq on his palm. He had found out through one of the session with Devandil that using a focus glyph helped with the magic you were trying to cast. Of course, at the end of the casting the paint would flake and fall off. Ethan used the black paint to scribe the focusing glyph upon his left palm. Slowly, Ethan took a deep breath and began his mediation. It was becoming easier for Ethan as time went on to focus on the feeling of casting needed for his Shielding. Even now Ethan was working to create a full body shield faster. Finding the spot, Ethan focused on the glyph, and pinpoints of Anchors started to appear across his palm. To him, Ethan had always believed that the Anchor was a metal ring that would secure the boundaries of the shield. Tasking the shield had been a material of putting the sense or thought of what he wanted to block in the ring. Others who practice the Discipline thought their shields were made of water, and poured it over their hands and body. It was all a concept and understanding that Ethan had began to develop about Shielding, instinct and the nature of one’s experience help guide their magic. Ethan started channeling energy through the glyph, and the pinpoints of light started to connect with lines and eventually and even blanket of energy fell across his palm. Ethan began using his right hand to perform hand gestures. The hand moved like it was feeling a bolt of silk, and the shield began to expand through Ethan’s aura. Every now and again Ethan felt small bumps or pebbles in the sheet, and Ethan would smooth the shield out each and every time. Ethan’s shield now stretched up his arm and was slowly growing over his body. He had started to learn that taking ones time allowed him greater control, and when he was going to his max, he wanted to make sure that he could his time to build up everything and avoid injury. It had been a lot like running first, sometimes you needed to know where your limits were before you can test them. Through long nights of practice, he had improved in running, combat and the speed in which he could slowly fill out his shield. It only took Ethan half a bell to fully encompass his body, the paint on his hand had broken and flaked off in places as the glyph had channeled all the energy it could. Ethan rubbed the paint off and felt pretty decent about his shield. He would need to keep casting it till he could do in a quarter of a bell, and then he would start tasking it. Letting go of the shield, Ethan knew that he would try again tonight, but right now, he needed to get back to the pit and start training again. Getting out of his chair, Ethan washed his hands with the picture of water allowing the dirty water to be poured into the bowl. The little bit of paint that came off obscured the rune and by the tomorrow morning would be removed. Quickly scrubbing the bowl Ethan placed the dirty water in a large bowl and took the dirty water to the local dumping chute. Once down Ethan locked up his apartment and jogged back to the pits, the little running that he did would help him warm up before practicing his moves with Lucas.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan was feeling better after getting a little bit more food in him. Going down to the pits Ethan looked around for Lucas. Seeing that the man was working with a sword, Ethan decided to start warming up. He headed over to the area that Lucas was fighting in, going off to the side of the ring Ethan began doing push ups and sit ups and the two dueled each other. Practice with a sword was next on the list of things to do, but Ethan needed to become better and faster at the basic combo’s that Ser Titus had taught him. He was planning on doing sword fighting in perhaps another thirty days or so. Ethan stopped after doing twenty pushups and went into sit ups, a lot of the fighters used the exercise to strength their stomach muscles so that when a hit came they could absorb it better, at least that was what Lucas said. Ethan didn’t doubt Lucas’ experience, the man was an average fighter in the Spinning Coin, but the fact that he still was a fighter meant that he had learned from hard experience. Lucas, had said he had been a mercenary guards for merchant caravans, and one day he decided to settle down in Syliras, hoping to get a wife and kids within the next few years. As Ethan heard the swords stop, Ethan finished up his sit ups. “Twenty five… Twenty six.. Twenty seven…” Ethan kept on till he reached thirty. Getting up, Ethan looked over at Lucas. “How many of those sit ups you do a day?” Ethan shrugged, “I dunno know, maybe a hundred or more why?” Lucas nodded, “You need to push yourself longer each time, your body is starting to adjust to the hard training. The first couple of days you pushed yourself hard and found your limits, now you push yourself close to the limit and stop, going to the next task and then the next. You are building up your endurance to keep doing those tasks more often, but you need to push yourself to three or four more sit ups, push up, pull up, and so on. That way you will be slightly exhausted from going to your limit, but your body will heal quickly due to not going over it. Now, since you aren’t entering the cage, lets show you what a real street fight is like.” Ethan got up and looked at Lucas, Ser Titus had taught him basic moves and defenses. “I thought I was?” Lucas looked at the man and simply shook his head, “Ethan, you have been learning some of the best techniques to survive a long drawn out fight. Training as hard as you can, your body will probably be able to handle long days of physical abuse, or bells of fighting with Fists. So yes, in the idea of needing to hold off an opponent with fists and kicks, you are getting better, but that’s not always the case.” Lucas pulled out a dagger. “I once had to take a caravan to Ravok, nice city, but I had just been paid and allow to go off to find a whore when a local thug tried to take my mizas.” Ethan started to circle Lucas as he held the dagger. “’Give me all you money boy’ he said. See Ethan as a guard you learn real quick to keep your money under your armor and in a place that some pickpocket can’t get to without you feeling.” Lucas lunged with a quick slash and Ethan jumped back. “Make sure to keep a good distance between the two of us, Ethan. I had to bend my elbow, so I didn’t take a chunk out of your arm. Anyway, this thug was desperate, I couldn’t pull my sword and I had broken my dagger in the skull of a bandit during the journey.” Lucas made two quick slashes with the dagger and then lunged. Ethan was able to jump out of the way of the slashes and sidestepped the dagger. “Good, now grab my wrist next time on the lunge. Control of the dagger hand is the most important thing in fighting someone with a dagger or knife, especially when you don’t have one. Anyway, I am feeling pretty good, and this thugs knife skills are horrible, so I do the dance with him. Dodging the slashes, punching and breaking his ribs instead of just ending the fight, it was going pretty good till his friends came. Once other people came, it got a lot more messy and I got cut up pretty good.” Lucas slashed three time, before going for the lunge, Ethan was able to grab his forearm on the lunge, but hadn’t been quick enough to grab his wrist. Ethan looked at Lucas, “Once you have control and we will work on that. You have a few options, first you can take your thumb and jab it into someone’s eye. I find that if someone is choking you, gorging out their eyes makes them stop pretty quick. You could also kick them in their knee, but don’t aim for the knee itself, slightly above or below it works better and can shatter their knee. Heck in a fight I placed my fingers up and man’s nose and pulled for all I was worth. Nearly ripped it off, I did. Listen, in a street fight if it isn’t over in less than half a chime, you need to hurry up and do something because your opponent is waiting on something. If it taking you longer then a chime, your losing. Now don’t think those pretty combos Ser Maximus taught you were useless. Like I said, in a brawl or fight you will be able to start holding your own, but don’t think that those are your only weapons, and never believe your opponent won’t gorge out your own eyes.” Lucas put away the knife, “Enough of that, let’s get to work on your fighting. I am going to be adding kicks in with the combos so you start using your legs to block. Ready, give me a one, two!” Ethan had dropped back into his fighting stance and threw a jab and right cross. Lucas through the haymakers that made Ethan duck, and then followed up with a side kick that Ethan raise his leg to block with the shin. The daily routine of hitting the wooden training post had toughen up his shin and the impact on it, hurt but not so much that it would cause Ethan to limp. Lucas and Ethan went back and forth practicing combos, Ethan would jab, throw a cross or uppercut, while Lucas made Ethan duck or block the punches with his arms. Kicks that were high, Ethan began to block with his hands, not all of them were perfect he felt the occasional hit in his hip. Others that were low, Ethan either stepped out of the way, or blocked with his shin. It was tiring work doing the back and forth, but it was building his core defenses. “Alright, Ethan, let’s do some ground work. Occasionally, in a fight a fighter is going to except your punches and kicks to put you on the ground. When that happens you can be in trouble, because they can break bones or pound in your face, as you lay there taking it. So are you ready to get started? I will teach you some of the basics and let Ser Titus be surprised.”

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Lucas came in kept his distance as they circled around. “So real ground or grappling work is about control and feeling where the other person’s weight is. For example, stay still for a moment.” Lucas came in and trapped Ethan in a high a bear hug. “So I have been success full in grabbing your arms and upper body. Some people think that they can put their hands on another person’s hips push off and try to knee them. Go ahead and try to do so.” Ethan placed his hands on Lucas’s hips and tried to push. He was able to back away by a couple of inches. Stepping back, Lucas stepped forward and behind Ethan’s front leg, moving a little more forward Ethan felt ready to trip. “See by stepping forward I keep your weight from drawing backward to hit me in the gut with a knee, and open you up for a fall.” Lucas stepped back, and continued with the lesson, “Since I control your upper body, your head doesn’t have the power for a head butt, a truly effective head but comes from the lower back and lay someone out flat. Now if the person is close enough you can use your teeth to bite him, but right now I am keeping my head away. Small punches to my ribs aren’t very effective, so your option is to try and work space in between our bodies. A kick to the instep works here, or stepping back forcing this guy to run after you to keep the lock. If you are facing someone taller and stronger, in which case they have lifted your weight off the ground, your legs are free and stronger than your arms. Try bracing yourself by putting your feet on their thighs and pushing.” Ethan pushed on Lucas’s waist and kept stepping back as Lucas kept trying to trip him. Finally, Ethan was able to step out of it feeling winded. Lucas was breathing heavy but looked like he could fight. “And that’s were your running comes in. Grappling holds take a lot out of you.” Lucas got Ethan to come back and the started to circle once again. “Now the other two grappling moves are dangerous and stupid for you to try. One is the lunge to the midsection, usually this comes from someone getting up from the floor and it can come from behind, side or in front. Yet this and a pretty desperate attack and it require that the person is unaware of their presence. If they act from the front, I kick to the side of their head or face will lay them out. Coming from the side, a punch downward into the back of their head is effective. If they tackle you from behind you will fall and it will be a tough ground battle that requires a great deal of skill and luck to survive. Some street thieves like acting your feet, that is where kicking and quick footwork can stop them.” Ethan and Lucas practice for a while attacking each other’s midsections and legs. Ethan began to see how one quick preventive punch or snap of his foot would stop the other person. They continued for a bell, before Ethan got tired trying to block or tap Lucas from attacking his legs and midsection. “Now… whew, been awhile since I did this much ground work. What happens if you can’t prevent the fall? When you fall you will hit your head and feel like laying there, your first instinct is to lay there, and we need to train that out of you. A real attacker is going to hop on your waist and punch you till you are dead and bleeding.” Lucas looked at him like a cat looking at a mouse. “The first thing you want to do put as much weight across your body as possible. Hitting the ground, even soft ground hurts if it’s all in your hand. Sit down.” Lucas sat down. “Now if I was falling backwards, I need to keep my chin tucked in and jaw clenched. The chin tucked to your chest will make sure you don’t hit your head against the ground. If you do the jaw clenched will make sure you don’t bite off your own tongue.” Lucas showed Ethan how to position his chin, than he held out his arms. “by holding out your arms you can feel what’s around you, just be sure that you don’t flex your muscles to try and stop your fall. Keeping a tight arm can make sure that you hit something with it and break the arm. If you fall and feel your right arm touch a wall or a person, let it curl up and start twisting left. You might break a rib or hurt your left arm, but the start of the turn will go far in the recovery.” “Now you will practice falling backwards from the sitting up position. It won’t feel real and you can control your fall, but what I want you to do is train hitting the ground and rolling left or right. Go left then go right. As you practice, I will be practicing my sword work, don’t worry I will keep the idiots away from you.” Ethan felt incredibly stupid sitting there and then falling backwards, but he did it. Sometimes he thought Lucas was just having fun with him doing impractical things and letting everyone in the pit laugh. Still Ethan fell rolled and got back up for a bell, until he felt dizzy and sore. Getting up, Ethan felt like it had been a full day and started to do his evening run. The circuit around the pit kept him pushing himself. In a way his mind floated away as he was focused on the next push up, sit up, pull up or step. The evening rains came back, soft droplets came first and Ethan helped Gerald move the weapons back into the training grounds. The break had been nice, but Ethan knew he now had to do more running to make up for it. So as he stepped out from the storeroom, Ethan felt the rain come down hard and he started running again. Feeling the droplets beat on him as he continued his exercises. ~Fin

[Radiant]

Ethan :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Running	+1 XP
Acrobatics	+1 XP
Unarmed Combat	+2 XP
Rhetoric	+1 XP
Meditation	+1 XP
Glyphing	+1 XP
Shielding	+1 XP
Endurance	+1 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

Armor Is Hot And Heavy

Training In The Rain

Lucas: Mentor

Magic: No Free Lessons

Tactic: Facing An Armed Man While Unarmed

Tactic: Wrestling Basics

Loots

Notes :

Ethan, I love your work as always.

Just a note, as he's a novice shielder, he should be tired after casting a shield over his body, but you didn't reflect it in your posts after that. Please keep this in mind next time.

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.