[Antinous Training Grounds] Clash of the Pycons (Ball)

by **Nivel** on August 25th, 2014, 7:55 am

Oocthat took way longer than it ever should have, I'm really sorry I'm talking so long with my posts
“ah...I understand, shouldn't count my eggs before they've...I can't remember the last part of that saying” Nivel was disappointed but understood why ball didn't want to teach her that particular skill, It sounded like it would be something the mage pycon would have to learn on her own. She mentally planned to practice getting a feel for shifting form so that she could give herself a scorpion tail and have arms come out of her mouth.

“oh..that sounds hard” The mage squire was sure she would have problems with the shifting of a reattached limb, the panic to become whole again made any other action impossible. This would be something Nivel would need to over come if she was to be a skilled pyken martial artist in the future.

Ball looked over her guarding stance and made the appropriate adjustments. It felt a little odd to have someone moving her like some kind o doll or mannequin but she stayed quite and refrained from protest. Thankfully the smaller pycon explained the changes he had made to her stance and how she could use them in future fights. Ball recommended that she start with defence which was a concept Nivel didn't really care for. She was a pycon of action and had far more interest in attacks but she supposed it was in her best interest to learn.

“Its not as interesting as scorpion tail attacks ” Nivel replied casually “ but I suppose I will try it”
She tried to familiarize herself with the position she was currently in, so that she could repeat it properly. She then moved herself out of the stance to a more neutral one and then tried to shift back. She got the position of her legs quite easily, still not as naturally as it should have been since she had to look down to check if they looked right. When she aligned her arms she put left arm a bit to low and it wasn't protecting her head area as it should. She didn't notice this oversight before she tried kicking in this position. With her legs being as boneless as they were, her kicked looked like an elephant lifting its trunk. Nivel didn't think it looked right, so repeated the kick this time thrusting her knee up and shooting her foot out like she'd witnessed tall folk do in the training grounds before. It still seemed to have an unnatural bend to it but Nivel was satisfied with the result.

Nivel continued to shift in and out of the position making a few mistakes and small blunders but it soon became more and more natural. At least it was starting to, before Nivel began to lose interest allowing her thoughts to wonder and her performance to suffer. “Can we do something else yet?” Nivel pleaded like a child “this just isn't very exciting.” She didn't realize how rude she was being and continued to present herself in a mopey way as she continued the exercise she was instructed to do.

“could we maybe play some sort of game?” Nivel suggested “ I like games”
The mage pycon pondered for a minute what would be a fun game that could be incorporated with defensive training. She knew she wanted to see more of his moves and what he was capable of shifting into maybe she could turn that into a game.
“how about you shape your limbs into different things, while attacking me and as I defend I'll try and guess what they are?” She knew it was a bit of a silly suggestion but It was the only one she had, she hoped Ball had more interesting suggestions.

by **Ball** on August 25th, 2014, 8:13 pm

It took some protesting from Nivel but she consented to Ball's suggestion of learning defensive manuvering first before moving on to offensive. Something I never did myself... He grimaced internally as that dawned on him, he understood defensive was necessary but to him the best defensive was an offensive one. It appearred she still wanted to learn how to make the scorpion tail or pushing a reattached limb through her body, but that came with time and training, Ball knew he had years to go before he was even able to shift in mid combat without the help of natural forces and his own momentum.

When she offered up the suggestion of a game it seemed an off idea to the squire, after all they were both squires and their time was spent training and learning... A... Game... The concept was foreign to Ball, yet as the mage-squire continued with the concept Ball nodded, “So you want to play dodge the teacher?” The name came out of nowhere, but it seemed to fit. Ball stood there and tapped his chin repeatedly as he watched Nivel continue the defensive stance training coupled with a few kicks. The combat squire spoke nothing as he walked.

She will understand her need to utilize her body soon enough, keep kicking like a wild animal and she will find herself in harm's way... Yet when she took the stance again, this time Ball could see she was open in the upper right side of her face. A smirk graced his face as his left hand slimmed down into a point and the clay he pushed into his right hand to form a large flat paddle.

It was with this right paddle he arched it at her face, the left he took a short jab. Neither would be harmful, but the attacks would prove why he suggested the stance.

oocThink nothing of it Niv, life is more important.

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Nivel** on September 5th, 2014, 8:32 pm

Nivel’s head shook happily at Ball’s question, she was glad the male pycon was willing to comply with her request. Routinely doing defensive poses really wouldn’t work for Nivel until she was demonstrated their use in a real life situation. This was made clear as balls paddle arm flew at the unsuspecting mage squires poorly protected face. She tried to move her low hanging arm up in time to stop the paddle attack but came up short. The connecting move made a sharp crack and left a flattened space on her cheek that lasted for a few moments. Completely disoriented she failed to notice the jab coming for her torso which was now completely unguarded. Nivel buckled over a bit as she took the second hit, not in pain so much as from the force of the blow. To an outside observer the attacks looked a lot worse than they were, for a pycon who routinely loses limbs and gets crushed they weren’t very much at all.

They were meant to teach the young female pycon a lesson, and they did, to some extent. Nivel bounced back into defensive positon this time with much more attention put on her weak spots although still not perfect. Her left arm was far too close to her face, her right arm was basically hovering over where she was jabbed and her body was bent outward like she was ready to tackle ball at any moment. While she was now taking defensive training seriously she was being a bit over zealous.

“I don’t know what that move was?” Nivel stated with confusion “is it a small legless table?” Not having seen many row boats she didn’t know what a paddle was or what it was used for. “a serving tray?...a musical instrument?” Nivel continued to fish for answers before letting Ball answer.

by **Ball** on October 3rd, 2014, 8:58 pm

As Nivel spoke Ball allowed her to speak, yet once her limbs were set in place his next volley of attacks came at her, the paddle swung this time at her torso, but in mid swing he tipped it forward, gracing the ground and using her talking as a distraction in which he rotated his feet in a swinging upward motion, this attack if landed wouldn't feel to as 'pleasant' as the other two, this one would hurt a bit more as first his left foot would connect with the limb 'protecting' her face and the right foot would slide right part that limb and connect with her ear.

As he cartwheeled into a landing position he purposely left himself open for her lower arm to strike him if she caught the opening before he landed in a crouch, palms in front of him held in slight angles.

Course all his attacks could mean little to nothing if Nivel was smart enough to swat his first foot out of the way and therefore send the expert pyken artist sprawling across the ground of the training facility.

If both attacks landed on her and Nivel did take the opening as he hoped she would see, Ball would take the blow accordingly.

Yet once he was in the standing position mentioned before, a crouching stance with palms in front at slight angles towards her and himself did Ball take time to comment, “You talk too much.”

Sighing Ball straightened up, “Enough physical training. Lesson Three, talking distracts. In combat you don't have time to talk, just listen and watch, if you are talking you are wasting breathe, oxygen, and you are expecting an answer you aren't going to receive.”

OOCSorry for late response. I say we wrap this up soon and submit it =D

Created goes to Euthisa

by **Nivel** on October 17th, 2014, 6:23 pm

Ball hadn’t given her any answers but instead launched his paddle hand in her direction. Despite her talking she was ready for an attack, she just didn’t wasn’t ready for the feint attack. She was caught off guard when the action ball was making suddenly changed out of nowhere and the first part of the onslaught hit the made squire in on her right arm. The second attack hit Nivel directly on her bat ear with just enough force that it didn’t fly off.
She didn’t let the attacks get to her however and readied a fast retaliation. She hurled her arm forward like a cobra strike targeting the opening ball had left for her. She pulled it back so quickly that she wasn’t even sure if she had even hit the other pycon. She didn’t really care though because she was satisfied knowing she had demonstrated that she could in fact recognize an opening when she saw one.

His comment about talking to much did irk her a bit, if he didn’t want her to talk why did he agree to the game. The second part of his lecture made her wonder if he only agreed to the game in order to teach her a lesson about not talking…this pycon was starting to sound a lot like her patron knight Grey.
“okay got it no talking while fighting” she replied with a bit of a sigh “Thank you for all of the lessons and the spar session, but I think I need to go now” Nivel didn’t really have anything important to do other than rest after all the exertion. She hadn’t done much magic training but her body was still shaky and being used as a punching bag didn’t really help with that.
“I’m sorry again for the earlier misunderstanding,” Nivel said as she dragged herself away for a quick rest.

by **Archailist** on November 16th, 2014, 12:57 pm

Ball :

Nivel :

Notes :

Was I a little too nuts in my grading?
If you've got concerns, just call me.

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