Closed [Anthonius Fighters' Pits] Long time, Longsword.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Oh, yes. The entire length of the pole quivered in his hands thanks to the ricochet off the flat of the long-sword, to the point that the squirrel had to tighten his grip exponentially just to make sure that the thing stayed in his hands. It was a good thing that Lythena also stationed her head a short distance from the sword, because although the pole didn't really wrap around the blade like a whip would, it certainly sprung around it a little and the metal tip bounced briefly before it catapulted itself back in the opposite direction. It wasn't a full transition of momentum but it was something and the squirrel intended to put every ounce to use. He turned and lowered the pole as he went, to let it drag along the floor again.. this time, in the opposite direction. If he could repeat the same movement while she was distracted, he'd hopefully be at an advantage. Though, she seemed pretty competent with that blade of hers. He might have to put some serious effort.

Though, still, he could tell she was holding back. Using the flat of her blade instead of the edge.. well, evidently the scabbard was well-decorated, and the Pycon could respect that.. but the pole was flexible. It could take damage and the more time she spent trying to go easy on him, the more concentration was moving away from the fight. He frowned slightly but mentioned nothing - it was her choice, after all. He couldn't force her to put all of her effort into it. Though it never seemed to work for those that were overconfident - always trying to put on a little bit of a show or a cocky gait. It always ended with them lying on the floor, one way or another. With the pole fast-approaching, she'd need to be prepared for the second swing as the pole reeled itself all the way back, for a second sling-shot.

The swiping kick, though, didn't even come as a surprise. The squirrel, being a squirrel, was far too used to the usual stomping, kicking and swiping of legs. It was the one thing that everyone eventually fell back towards. And the squirrel had dealt with it so long.. not just in Syliras, but in all of the other cities, that it practically became second instinct to avoid. He leaped into mid-air to hop narrowly over the sweeping leg.. but it meant that the pole was released from the ground at the same moment, and his swing was catapulted in a sharp half-circle, straight for the left side of Lythena. It even had a bit of a diagonal twist on it, because he had to lean back slightly to keep his balance while in the air. It was, admittedly, much more difficult to control at that point though. Suspended in mid-air, one error and he'd be sent flying himself across half of the damn arena. He needed to come up with a better plan than just smacking her repeatedly with a pole.. or at least, trying to. Evidently she was too smart for that.

[Lythena]

After her sweeping kick had failed she found herself in a tight spot. She noticed and had thought of the idea that the squirrel would have been competent enough to make use of the returning momentum, how to deal with it was another question. A few different scenarios went through her mind. Take the hit, but soften it by blocking with her arm perhaps? But that would leave her to find out just how hard that pole could make an impact, and she wasn’t curious enough about the weapon to let that happen as easily. She put all of the strength her stationary leg had into a single push, dashing herself forward towards the squirrel full on, turning in the process to face her stomach towards the pole and her right side towards the squirrel. She was aiming to achieve the weapon to collide with her with the base of the pole where the squirrel was holding it, or even just midway, where the momentum was considerably lower than the springy end. She hoped that by combining throwing the squirrel off position by a human projectile as well as allowing the pole to just hit her like a stick to the stomach, to be able to shrug off the blow with the appropriate preparation. She inhaled sharply and tightened her abdominal muscles to brace for impact just in time, as the Py-Pole collided with her about halfway down its length, its bendy nature causing it to wrap around her somewhat before springing back as she let out an audible loud exhale from the blow. Her left arm wrapped around the pole to ensure it wasn’t going anywhere, clinching it to her body as she flew forward. Luckily the blade of the squirrel’s weapon was just far enough at the end of the weapon to not meet her skin, yet it did wrap far enough to make a cut in her white blouse at her left side. The stick of the pole itself sure would be leaving a mark across her stomach, but it was better than meeting the sharp end. Her dash as mentioned would be catapulting herself towards the squirrel, a fat man’s body slam against a child came to mind considering the height difference of the two fighters. Lythena sure wasn’t one you would call heavy, but for the squirrel it would be quite a weight none the less. By proceeding with the dash she forced herself to let go of her longsword in the process, which fell flat to the ground beside the two as soon as she let go of the hilt to proceed with her dash. At that point it became her mission to recover from this as fast as possible to retrieve her weapon, all would depend on how the squirrel would deal with her dash whilst trying to maintain his grasp on his Py-Pole which she aimed to hold locked against her for the duration of her flight. Her methods were surely not anything she had thought of doing before, but then again she had also never fought against a squirrel with a weapon such as this either.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He wasn't really sure he could call it a trading of blows, because Lythena was taking the hit in order to give one in return... with her entire body. There was no chance, while he hung in mid-air, that he could do anything to avoid the blow. However, when the satisfying clap of the pole against flesh wound its way back through his paws, he knew that it would be alright to drop the weapon in order to protect the one important part of his body - the Nexus. Immediately, he drew his entire body into a single, hard mass. Admittedly, it was a little short notice to be forming such a new shape, so quickly, so it wasn't as small and as solid as he would have preferred. The stick clattered to the ground at the same moment as Lythena's side clashed against his smaller body, and it sent him flying across the arena before eventually rolling to a stop at the opposite side. At least more of the force had been pushed into throwing him backwards, rather than damaging his body. However, it did mean that he had quite a long way to run if he was going to pick up his weapon again. Lythena was actually between the squirrel, and his pole. He'd have to try and sneak around her.. or under her.

And, he had to reform his body. Thankfully, being a Pycon, he could shift the position of his clay.. not only in terms of the shape that it could form, but also the density, by packing large amounts of his clay into small spaces. It was the one thing that stopped the Pycons punches from simply splattering uselessly when he tried hand-to-hand combat. Admittedly, usually it wasn't very noticeable because he was still getting the hang of the whole concept. But it was more than enough to make his body actually useful when it came to close-combat. A little more solid than usual... less malleable. Now, though, he had to reverse the process and draw the clay back out of the small ball, and reform it into a regular torso with five limbs pushing out of it.. two arms, two legs, a tail, a head. The transformation from squirrel to ball had been done hastily, and the ball had come out malformed and not very dense.. but the switch back to squirrel was done in exactly the same time, and came out perfectly. His natural form was so easy to switch back into, that he didn't really have to focus on doing it. It just happened.

As soon as it was done, he gave no quarter. The squirrel ran head-on for the girl, with all the speed he could muster on four paws. He needed to get back to that pole. He needed to pick it, and while she was distracted, he could finally use the pole for its real purpose - he could fling himself straight for her body and hopefully get a kick or two in before he found the need to drop back to the ground compulsory. He had to admit, though - he'd never had to do this kind-of thing before. He'd never been outsmarted so quickly by someone else.. not just in terms of tactical experience, but also with the weapons they held. She was smart in her body as well as her hands.. smarter than the squirrel. It was more than just a pit between races.. it was a pit between true fighters. He could have swore that he'd seen a few other eyes glancing their way as the squirrel was flung across the entire length of the Fighter Pits, although he couldn't really stop to double-check.

[Lythena]

Lythena had wasted no time from the moment she noticed her tackle had the desired effect. She needed about half a second to regain her footing where after she sprinted back towards the grounded weapons. She turned to face the charging squirrel as she reached them, when it dawned to her that she had little choice on what to do. If she went after her own weapon, the four-paw-sprint of the squirrel would surely be faster than her, and the Pycon would get a free hit towards her backside. Her sword was just a few meters away, but it was enough. In a split second decision, she placed her left foot onto the Py-Pole to pin it to the ground. After all, there was no harm in having some brawling practise, and she thought her longsword would be a bit too much for the squirrel to pick up anyhow. She lifted her arms, hands up in front of her face to guard herself, bending through her knees again to lower her posture somewhat. Peering through her defense as the squirrel sprinted on. She held her hands open, palms towards her opponent as he would likely be flying in and she needed to be able to grasp him in his flight. Her stance resembled that of a wrestler somewhat, ready to catch anything coming her way. Looking at how the squirrel was charging at her, she expected no less than a flying kick of some sort. She needed a plan, some retaliation, and she needed it fast. The squirrel was heading for her at what seemed like lightning speed to her. She held her ground, determined to be able to answer to whatever the squirrel had in mind. While the squirrel might be nimble and fast, so was she. Granted not to the same extent, but still. After all she had no armour to slow her down should she want to make a dive-roll out of the way for example. Her simple clothes had proven to be much more of use to her than armour would. She liked to be able to move freely without the restrictions of metal plating. She would need a new shirt -again- however. It seems that fighting in just simple clothes does have some drawbacks other than the lack of skin protection. She needs a new set after each battle, pretty much. Assuming her opponent was good enough to get past her sword that is, which the Pycon did seem to manage. And if it wasn’t torn then it sure as hell would be stained so badly she would never get her top back to its previous white state. But those were worries for later, right now there’s a charging squirrel heading right for her, and he was coming in fast.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

When she pinned his Py-Pole, he cursed silently. There was no chance he'd be able to remove the thing by that point.. he needed something a little.. well, better. Although all he really had to fall back on, was his Py-Ken. Because she wasn't wearing armour, it actually came at a bit of a disadvantage.. when there was armour, he could climb underneath it. He could use it as a ladder to climb up and he could even use it as a shield to sneak underneath. Armour was meant to protect, so once he got under there.. all their yelling and punching would have very little effect. This girl, however, wasn't wearing anything but a selection fo commoners clothes.. and while the fabric would provide good support, it wouldn't be as fantastic as that of chain-mail. He needed to put his acrobatics skills to the challenge once again, and find a way to get under a tender area so that he could launch a few small kicks and punches. The backs of the knees would be covered.. and her center of gravity had been lowered by crouching. So.. he wouldn't be able to topple. But he would have easier access to her face and the upper parts of her body...

He continued charging, but suddenly his tail flicked to the left. The sudden change in weight distribution tipped his entire lower body around to the left, and caused the squirrel to turn right sharply - his entire body tilted to the right as well, to equal out the balance. Then, it flicked again in a full half-circle to the right. The squirrel was changing directions to become a zig-zag heading straight towards the crouching girl, alternating between left and right by using his tail as a counter-weight. If he could suitably confuse her, then it'd be at his advantage, he could be... moderately sure about that. His mind was working a mile a chime, and by now the exhaustion had worked its way into his mind as well. If neither of them was going to push up an advantage, they could continue going this way, all the way up to complete exhaustion. Admittedly, it'd be a damn good training session in the end.. and the squirrel was quite unsure if he'd ever have a similar one to this.

Once the zig-zagging had gone three or four times, he straightened out abruptly and zipped, hopefully, right between her legs. Then, a quick half-turn aided by his tail, before launching himself right up into a rather exceptional jump to grapple the bottom of the back of her shirt, in an iron grip. The shirt wouldn't offer much in protection but if he could climb inside the shirt, perhaps it would have the same desired effect as when he climbed inside heavy armour - an immediate surrender. Most people didn't really like having their privacy invaded so thoroughly during a fight. That, and most of them didn't like a good kick in the crotch. Maybe he should have done that to her, while her arms were high...

[Lythena]

She had seen her share of battles before, both slow and fast opponents. But this one was of another sort. The Pycon’s size combined with his blazing speed was something she hadn’t encountered before. The thought crossed her mind that maybe she should spend some more time hunting small animals in the woods to get used to these unpredictable, fast movements from one direction to the other. Clearly the few rabbits she had caught were no match for this Pycon’s speed and agility. Catching him mid run at this point was a lost cause. All in all she was already very impressed by the intensity of this training session. Such a unique opponent makes a fighter have to delve into thoughts for solutions to niche tactics she would not have discovered otherwise. She readied herself for a jump of some sort, or a flying kick, but it seemed the squirrel had other plans. The Pycon’s fast movements would be too much for any fighter to follow at this point, she lost track of which way he would choose and he zipped through her legs quite easily. She wanted to turn but it was already too late, the squirrel had latched itself onto her back. At this point all hopes of keeping her shirt somewhat presentable were gone, the white cloth stained with little dirt squirrel prints, the side having torn and who knows what else would follow. She knew that shaking and running around like a headless chicken would do nothing at all, but she then came up with a much better idea. At least she hoped it was a good idea. She let herself drop backwards onto her back in a swift sudden motion, it was a spur of the moment idea because for all she knew this could turn out badly as well. She was hoping that while the squirrel was busy latching onto her shirt and trying to get under it, she would catch him off guard with her backwards drop before he had time to really understand what was about to happen. She wanted to pin him down, or at least stop his efforts before he made his way under her shirt and perhaps towards the front where he would invade private areas she rather kept him away from. If he thought this would stop her from continuing the fight however, he was sorely mistaken. She thought she would get some weapon training against an odd, non-frequent weapon yet it seems this whole deal turned out to be more of a brawling match-up more than anything. Not that this was a bad thing, she could use the unarmed experience just as much as the next fighter.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Well, she was certainly trying now; he knew because she was trying to kill him. At first, he stopped, when he felt the mild shift in weight. But it didn't take very long to realize what she was doing - and doing it would end up with the squirrel dead, if she succeeded. The female wasn't one of the largest creatures he'd met and gone against, but she was still somewhere between thirty and forty times his weight, and that was enough to make the squirrel nervous at the thought of that weight falling down upon his entire body at once. She should have been thankful, more than the squirrel, that he had a tight grip on her shirt. He could use it to spin around quickly, traversing the hem of the shirt and moving around to the front mere ticks before her body fell to the ground and the squirrel was left only shaken after the incident.. and not severely and permanently damaged.

Since he was alive, he decided to make the best of the situation though. With her foot off his pole, he could immediately hop off and run down to the pole at the bottom of her body. If he could get his weapon and she couldn't, without him seeing it and taking full advantage, then he could pinch a rather significant advantage over her - mainly, the fact that he could now use a weapon to enhance his attacks and she couldn't. The biggest problem was, after all, the fact that his attacks had more resemblance to an ant-bite than a co-ordinated attack like it truly was. Even without armour, he needed a good run-up, and he needed to land a good attack in the perfect spot to maximize damage and effectiveness. This, compared to the girl.. who didn't need to do anything more than fall on her opponent to murder him in the simplest, and probably the most painful way possible. At times like these, he wished he was bigger than a squirrel.. just so that he could feel the others beneath him. The ability that was always taken for granted by all the larger creatures.

Then again, there were advantages in being small as well. As the girl was soon going to find out - that was, if he could make it between her and the sword before she managed to get up and begin running towards it. Or crawl, for that matter. If she did get to the sword, he'd just have to launch the quickest attack possible before she regained herself completely. And if he could get before it and between the weapon and her.. he'd have to make sure that she didn't get around him. Mostly, by pointing the tip at her chest and assuring that she knew.. she wasn't going to get around. Not even by jumping.. because the pole was proportionally massive for a creature of his size, and the tip wasn't dull either. He could do some pretty serious damage.. if he stabbed it in the right part of the body with the right amount of force. By that point, though, he'd really be lucky if he could keep the punches rolling. He was really getting exhausted by that point.. struggling to wield the pole with all of its weight.

[Lythena]

She knew that it was all going to come down to speed at this point. The moment she felt her back hitting the dirt without some part of the squirrel in between her and the ground, she crawled backwards just a tad and quickly got to her feet. In a swift motion of her left hand she pulled the leather strap in her hair by one end, loosening it and grabbing the other end with her right hand. She needed something to defend herself, considering the squirrel would already have made it to his weapon and picked it up. Her dark brown hair fell from its confined earlier position, flowing down onto her shoulders with a mild bounce. With her sword a few meters behind her, she positioned herself between it and the squirrel, her back towards the sword. She held the strap at about just below chest height, once again lowering her posture a little to have most of her body within range of her arms to defend. She held the leather strap loosely in between her hands, having a firm hold of either end. She wasn’t armed, but at least the strap was something. One would think she had plans of strangling someone with the way she was holding it, but she had other plans entirely. She waited for the squirrel to make a move with his Py-Pole, all the while calmly taking small steps backwards towards her sword. Should he wait too long, she would reach it and have herself armed again, that is if he would slip and let her pick it up. The stance of her legs and feet would show she was ready to dash sideways as well if the squirrel would try to use its speedy little legs to try and get around her. While she was getting tired, so was the squirrel, and she hoped she could keep up with him if he’d run around her to keep herself between him and the sword. After all he was carrying his Py-Pole again, which showed to slow him down compared to his normal speed. She wasn’t going to let him use her own tactic against her, or at least wasn’t planning to. The squirrel had shown his speed before and should he have the energy left the odds of him making it around her before she could dash in place were not to be disregarded. The dynamic nature of the sparring had indeed drawn a few spectators. A few duos of fighters had stopped their battle to spectate the ongoing sprinting and tumbling that was taking place in what was by now nearly the center of the pit. Neither of the combatants seemed to have the time to notice the spectators however, both too focussed on actually winning this spar. They seemed to be well matched against one another, and Lythena needed all of her concentration to bring this one in her favour.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He could only grin. There was no chance, now. She had to resort to creating quick, crude weapons out of her own clothing in order to match a real weapon. As soon as she slipped.. tried to duck and pick up that long-sword.. he'd get her. And for now, with the pole between both paws, he began to jab at her repeatedly with that sharp tip. Never once in the same place, though.. he alternated around the lower areas, the legs and the hips. If he tried any higher, she'd most likely try to use that leather strip. But if he kept the attacks much lower, where the strap wouldn't reach unless she actually ducked down.. he could corner her. And so, with every step she took, he made another jab for her. Light things that were really meant to provoke, rather than actually injure. He had the advantage; he could push her right over the sword if he kept his cards right and his offensive up. And then, he'd be between her and the sword again. She'd have to find a way around or over the squirrel to get to it.

When they drew close to the sword, he decided to throw in a little extra, too. Whereas the pole had previously aimed for the lower areas of the body, he suddenly raised it.. only to slam the metal tip straight into the ground, where it was easy for it to find purchase and lodge into place. He didn't stop moving forwards though, and the length began to stretch and strain as the middle nearly turned into an 'u' shape. Tension was building along the whole length of tree resin, meaning that it became more and more resistant to the squirrels grip. He was really having to hold on tightly by that point - lest the entire thing just flipped forwards several times. It'd make a great long-range offensive weapon if it could be controlled effectively but for now, the squirrel readied himself, tightened his grip a little more and pushed it the last few inches.. before the whole length suddenly straightened as it overcame the weights attached to its ends, and the squirrel was literally flung forwards. He didn't weigh much.. two pounds at the best. But his momentum gave the smallest weights much more power when they slammed into a body.

His accuracy needed improvement, that was certain. He was slung straight for Lythena's shoulder, instead of the chest where he'd hoped to connect. He was actually just shy of being launched right over her shoulder, which wouldn't have been too bad anyway. It would have meant he'd end up pretty much standing on the sword, albeit without a weapon yet again because the thing was left stuck in the dirt, flapping back and forth almost comically. But it did mean that he stopped Lythena from picking up her long-sword a second time at least. And thanks to his constant practice performing in-air flips, he managed to use his weighted tail to swing his body around and lift up one leg for a sharp kick. At the same time, he tried to push as much clay into the foot and the leg in general as he possibly could.. which, unfortunately, made the rest of his body a little softer but nevertheless it made the offensive leg stronger, and less likely to simply splatter into soft clay the moment it made impact. Granted, there was very little he could do in such a short amount of time. There was very little clay crossing the small gaps. But it was something, and that was good enough.

[Lythena]

The jabs were something she was easily dodging by taking light paces backwards with each one, but she knew that by doing this she was rapidly losing ground. She was looking for an opening to catch the squirrel’s weapon in her trap, but there was no way for her to use her makeshift defensive weapon unless he would really swing that Py-Pole rather than jab. Something he didn’t seem to plan on doing anytime soon. From the moment the squirrel jabbed his Py-Pole into the ground and started charging it, she knew what he was up to. The flexible nature of his weapon would make an ideal sling-shot, especially for a character that could transform itself into a solid projectile mid launch. The whole preparation that goes into actually firing himself gave her enough time to think of a counter-motion. She turned her body sideways as the weapon reached it’s turning point, and flung the squirrel towards her. Making her a much narrower target to hit, and considering he was already veering off course would likely miss her completely. She tried to lift her arms in time to attempt to catch him mid-flight with her leather strap, but as his accuracy was somewhat off, as was hers. She was getting close to exhaustion from the continuous struggle, something she should probably be training on a bit more for future battles. It’s becoming harder and harder to act out accurate motions. She wanted her efforts to be able to at least catch him by a limb or his tail, or some part of his body as he was spinning, thinking her leather strap and her grasp would be rigid enough to withstand the momentum and not just snap in two pieces or let go of one end at the moment of impact. She hoped to throw him off course enough that he would need sufficient time to regain himself, or best case scenario crash into one of the training dummies or other fighters around the pit. A spectator, even. At this point she started to care very little about how the fight would come to a close, as long as it did in a timely manner. Even if she would catch the squirrel with the strap, chances are that she’d be dragged along because of it’s momentum and dive forwards against the pit’s ground. After all she had to really make an effort to keep her posture, her leg muscles starting to cramp up a little because of the continuous effort, and having to lower her posture whenever they squared off face to face. She hadn’t had much practise with being in such a lowered stance for a considerable amount of time, and it was starting to show. Gritting her teeth a little to try and bite through her muscle cramps.