Completed Celebration by Sword (Ball)

[Letixia Raigner]

Timestamp: Winter 15, 513

Letixia awoke in the dormitory just as the sun was beginning to arrive. She looked around the dark room, her eyes adjusting. She could see two sleeping lumps across the way, and one empty bed, as was the usual. She'd never once woken up before Sheria, but almost always woke before the other two. She was in a good mood and well rested. Today was her birthday. She turned seventeen today. She didn't typically do anything special for this day, but she was always upbeat and more enthusiastic on her birthday.

"Another day older, another day wiser."

She remembered that saying of her father's, and smiled. She slipped out from her bed quietly. She moved over to their room's wash basin, and splashed some of the cool water on her face. She relieved herself, then set about getting ready for the day. She stripped out of her nightclothes and began pulling on her day clothes, dirty, stained, ragged, from the constant training she was put through. She then moved over to her chest, which atop sat her armor, loaned to all squires by the Knighthood. She first slipped into her chain mail shirt, weighing like a cold hug, hanging down to her thighs. She then pulled on her chain mail leggings, kept up by attaching them to the belt which she just wrapped around her waist. She kept at this until she was under her full set of armor.

She grabbed her sword, in its sheath, and strapped it to her belt. Her shield she carried in her left hand as she tiptoed out of the room, doing her best to not wake her roommates. She stopped by the dining hall, grabbed a chunk of bread to nibble on as she made her way to the training grounds. The Antinous Training Grounds had been her second home as a squire, spending most of her time there. If she wasn't, she was with her Patron learning anything he felt he could teach her. She typically trained from morning to lunch, studied from lunch until evening, then ended with a small sprint of night training, topped off by dinner and sleep.

This early in the morning there weren't the many metallic clangs of training, but every so often she would hear one or two. She found an empty salle, made to mimic the rocky hills outside the city. Small boulders, uneven ground, and the like littered the area. It wasn't too large, good for maybe three to four people. She kept her sword sheathed, ready to start her stretches. She moved her shield to in front of her, and grasped the edges with both, allowing it to center up with her body. She then raised it, with extended, outstretched arms in front of her, feeling her muscles waking up. She held it for many moments, then raised it above her head, holding it there. She tightened her abdominal and back muscles to maintain proper posture. She then bent her arms backwards at the elbows to work the muscles in her upper arm. She then reset, and began again, her eyes watching the rising sun.

[Ball]

Ball had forgot to return the dorms the night before, finding himself restless. It’s been a whole year since he lost his Liege Lord. A whole year worth of turmoil, training, and dark times. He watched as a young person slipped into the training grounds, clanking not so quietly in chainmail garb. The squire known as Ball wore no armour, he was claustrophobic in it, mostly due to the inflexibility of the material. He watched as the person stretched and then proceeded to stretch using their shield. Ball realized with the rays of Syna gracing the being’s form that it was a female and a squire to boot.

Watching the girl train was interesting, he had seen others of the large pycons stretch and move, but Ball couldn’t understand how they could move so rigidly. He stepped forward towards her, cracking a twig in the process that was found underfoot. Oddly enough she was staring at the sun, not her surroundings. Lesson time? Ser Pycon and Liege Lord would’ve yelled at him if he was paying attention to one single object and not his whole surrounding. So the squire indeed thought it was lesson time.

Yanking his sword from its sheath on his waist, held there by what appeared to be a piece of some fabric, Ball held the small weapon at his target before running at her. He was a poor adept at the weapon he held in his small hand. The metal weapon glinted Syna’s rays off it’s flat, this glare would easily reflect back on the girl’s chain, giving away his position.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Letixia Raigner]

As Leti moved to do another cycle of stretching, when a glint of light blinded her left eye. She immediately turned and saw movement coming towards her. Her mind couldn't immediately grasp what the threat was, but her reflexes hadn't failed her, immediately bringing her shield between her and the attacker. She stepped backwards quickly slipping her arm into a proper grip on her shield, her eyes now seeing the Pycon standing before her with some sort of sword... cloth... weapon. She'd heard of this squire from a few friends of hers, his name was Marble or something. But he was a lot stronger than he'd appeared and quite spontaneous it seemed. She'd seen Pycons before, but had never really interacted with any. She cocked an eyebrow at him, to confirm that this spar was really happening. She drew her own sword and nodded at him. She knew that his speed and size would likely make going on the defensive mostly pointless. So aggressive would be her play for the day. She charged forward, lowering her shield, assuming his height would mean his attacks would be lower. She thrust her blade at his position, twisting it as she went. She made sure to keep her eyes on his weapon rather than his body, knowing that his kind could change their form in some way or another. She continued her forward momentum by planting her left foot down hard and swinging her right foot at him in an attempt to kick him as hard as she could.

[Ball]

Ball watched as the girl dropped her shield, a stupid move against Ball considering the thickness of that singular piece of equipment. The glint of her sword though brought the expert pyken’s attention and he smirked, the blade whistled as it came down, his body responding with a twist to the right, as he twisted, his body contorting forced him to drop his rapier. As it tumbled to the ground it nicked a small chunk of his foot from the rest of his body. Ball was lucky when he twisted cause her blade seemed to have followed him for a moment before his twist became a roll.

Then came the foot, Ball knew that was coming almost as soon as she stepped forward to swing down with her sword. It never seemed to amaze Ball that tactic. He was a small man, so everyone expected him to take either the sword or the foot. Fine. Want to play that way? The squired bit of clay lurched forward, twisting as his body slide underneath the sole of the clearly novice boot. Both hands pushed up, right into the arch of her foot. The connection would be painful if successful and the pycon would use the sudden shift in her body weight to prevent further damage to flip himself over to the top of her foot and then immediately jump up from that to land on the cross-guard of her sword. His end results would be him stepping on to the junction of thumb and palm rather hard as Ball would transfer his full body weight and mass from sword to hand.

If he failed the connection the pycon’s forward momentum was enough to keep him going beyond her boot sole and end up behind her where he would curve up and pull himself onto the outer lip of the top of her boot.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Letixia Raigner]

Leti had watched her stab attack get dodged with what appeared to be ease by the Pycon. Her kick though performed a bit of magic she hadn't expected. It had made the squire disappear entirely! Or so it seemed, for she suddenly felt a pressure on the bottom of her foot pushing up, midswing through her kick. This caused her to react instinctually, and she found her balance falling backwards. Her foot and hip throbbed from the sudden change in direction as her right foot slammed down behind her to brace herself. Then came the spike of pain in her sword hand. She saw the little bastard had leapt onto her hand, crushing it between himself and her hilt as she drew her sword back to it's natural position. Surprising even to herself, she'd managed to keep a hold on her weapon, but ended up performing a most un-Knightly maneuver. As if he were an annoying mosquito on her hand, she flailed her sword arm in pain, flinging it upward. She immediately retreated a few steps from where they'd been fighting, looking around for that petching Marble. He was a lot faster and harder to follow with her eyes than she even imagined he could be. Her foot and hip ached, but her hand hurt something fierce. She reverted back to a more comfortable method of hers. She kept her shield foot forward, sword foot back, her shoulders equal with them. Arm up, she maintained her shield at appropriate height, her sword held in front of her defensively. She was beginning to realize that there was a large difference between their abilities. Leti refused to regret her decision to go on the offensive, even if it was a painful mistake. She waited now, for him to return. No more of this reckless behavior. It was time to be defensive, careful, and she needed to pick her opportunities carefully. Her eyes scanned the area looking for the little clay squire.

[Ball]

Luckily for Ball when Leti started to flail around he was able to make himself practically disappear, his body was bending and flailing about around her wrist, so the pycon did what he needed to do stay on, he followed the flailing motion and curved his body to conform to her wrist before holding on to his body, effectively sealing himself around her wrist like a living bracelet. When she stopped her useless arm shaking the pycon had effectively vanished into the thin air. In truth he was right where he needed to be. The blow to her thumb joint wasn’t enough to drop her sword and therefore her lengthy extension and clear advantage against him so Ball decided to force the matter.

He tightened his body, constricting his body to wrap tighter around her wrist, there was little to dodge in this situation but he wasn’t worried about her dodging… It was her damaging both of them he worried about. Getting Ball to release from her wrist was a simple matter, but it would put both of them in severe danger and potentially out of commission for some time. That cannot happen. Ser Pycon would eat me alive. Ball focused his body’s shape and pressure at the tendons that ran from the inner part of her wrist, up her palm, and into her fingers. Enough pressure on them and he could effectively have her release the sword. Once the sword was released Ball would release his hold on her wrist and start his attack on the next focal point… Her eyes, nose, and throat. If Leti managed to release Ball from her wrist Ball would concede to a forfeit on the grounds of continuing would be counter-productive or dangerous to them both.

If the attacks continued and it came time to attack her face and throat Ball would go easy, no permanent damage and definitely nothing that would harm her for any more than a chime at most. No bleeding, no extensive bruising beyond standard training session bruising. Ball wasn’t out to kill, he was teaching her to watch her surroundings.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Letixia Raigner]

As Leti held herself steady, looking for her sneaky opponent, she began to feel a small pressure upon her wrist. She ignored it at first, thinking it might just be swelling from the injury she'd received earlier. But when it got tighter, and more painful, she got more concerned that she'd been more severely injured than she'd thought. She looked down at it, only to see something wrapped around her wrist and brace. It was squeezing and crushing her wrist into her vambrace. She instantly realized that this was her Pycon opponent. She didn't even know that he could do such a feat. She felt her grip weakening on her sword and immediately ran through her options. She could try bashing her arm against her shield, but that would likely damage them both as well as her equipment. Ser Ranqor would not be thrilled with that decision in the least, and she would have hell to pay. So she settled on her other option. She knelt down, set down her sword, for dropping it was simply not an acceptable option. She set down her shield and "I surrender!" followed shortly thereafter. Her free hand immediately began trying to loose her vambrace from her arm, in hopes of freeing it in time. She managed to get the buckles off and slipped her arm free from the armor. She pulled back her sleeve of chainmail to inspect the damage. Already a bruise was forming at the junction of her thumb from his earlier attack. She didn't see any visible damage to the wrist and hoped that she got lucky. She picked up her sword and sheathed it, then picked up her shield and vambrace. She stood up fully, looking for her opponent. "Thank you for the sparring lesson. I certainly learned a few things." There was no venom or anger in her voice, for she was truly thankful. She rarely won a spar anyways, and her patron told her that the only true time to win is when your life, or another's was on the line. Working your best to improve was enough of a reward, and he always said that those who lose learn more.

[Ball]

As soon as Leti placed her sword and shield to the ground Ball immediately relaxed his gripping hold. It wasn’t until she said that she surrendered did he remove himself from around her wrist as she was removing the brace from her wrist. It involved a simple hop from him and a climb up her chainmail to rest on her shoulder as she completed her look over. Ball knew her hand would be bruised, that much as obvious in his attack, the wrist he wasn’t sure what to expect. The girl-squire was wearing armour so it was hard to gauge how much damage he could cause.

When she finished talking, stating that she learned a lesson Ball nodded as he looked at her, “Yu. No. Dur.Op.Pah. Sha.Eel.Da. Sha.Eel.Da. Ur.Fuh.Ur.En.Da.” [‘You no drop shield. Shield your friend.’] Pointing to her shield on the ground. “Dat. Sah.Va.Yu.” [‘That save you.’] Ball knew all too well that a knight’s shield was their saving grace against blows from hammers, swords, and other various weaponry both ranged and melee.

“Puh.Ick.It.Up.” [‘Pick it up.’] He motioned for her to both sword and shield as the three inch clay squire jumped from her shoulder towards the ground below. Within his height from the ground Ball tucked into a roll and rolled for a bit, absorbing the shock of the fall as best as he could, before unrolling onto his feet, taking the step forward from momentum, his body swaying some.

“Ugh.” He grumbled as Ball turned back to her. “Gu.Uh.Da. No.Wah. Yu. Puh.Ta. Sha.Eel.Da. Bah.Tum. On. Gur.Ow.Da. An. Ah. Bur.Ace.Ah. Et.” [‘Good. Now, you put shield bottom on ground, and brace it.’] It was clear in his wording that Ball had no clue what the proper names of things were involving the shield. This might end up being a lesson for them both.

Created goes to Euthisa

[Radiant]

Ball :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+1 XP
Acrobatics	+2 XP
Py-ken	+1 XP
Wrestling	+1 XP
Teaching	+1 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

Letixia: Squire

Py-ken: Vice 'Bracelet' Grip

Combat: Attacking Vital Points On A Human's Body

Loots

+1 Shield Point

Notes :

Abandoned thread, I could not give much, but still, enjoy your grades!

Ball, just a note, you have zero XP in shield so you can't possibly teach Leti how to use it in that way, from your last post, you taught her like you are high-novice or competent in shield. Please keep this in mind in your future threads.

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.