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

[Archailist]

42nd of Summer, 514.

Being a squirrel meant a lot of things. It meant that there were certain expectations to be had out of being a squirrel, inherently. One was to be fast and nimble, and Arch pretty much followed that to the letter. The Py-Pole in his grasp swung out in a wide, flailing arc thanks to the vibrations that just seemed never-ending, as they followed all the way down to the base of the flexible, amber staff and then ricocheted off the sharp, metal tip before moving back up. No matter what he did, he couldn't make it stop.. so he'd learned to live with it, even as Fist took it to her advantage and literally bent her entire body at what should have been a waist - although, since Fist was a Pycon shaped like a massive arm with a misshapen face carved into the palm of the hand, it was actually the elbow-joint - and did a strange limbo pose in order to let the swing fly straight over her body, and clear without even a graze. He should have stepped back quicker, because he knew that she was coming for him immediately afterwards, but he didn't - instead, he used the weight of the metal tip and swung around in a full circle. It removed all semblance of control over his own weapon but he knew, she'd be able to easily close whatever gap he could make with his acrobatic leaps. His best chance was to push her back a few steps.

Through some miracle, it worked. But then, the squirrel fell due to nothing but himself - swinging the pole at such a fast pace had given the metal tip too much speed, since it was on the farthest point possible from the center. When he tried to stop the pole, the tip swung around when its momentum stopped, and nearly smacked its wielder in the face. Thankfully he managed to duck in time.. but Fist was there, and instead of using her pole, she just flat-out kicked him in the chin with one of her stubby legs and sent the squirrel reeling backwards to splay over the floor. Fist, as usual, didn't even smile over her victory. Instead, the female Pycon instructor turned her back and stacked her own Py-Pole with her other weapons. "We're done for the day, Arch." She called the shots, after all. When they were done, they were done. But Arch wasn't ready to leave. The excitement, and the adrenaline of the fight was still in his system. He just wanted to go again, and he didn't care if it was with another Pycon, or a human, or who. Just as long as he got to keep going.

This was probably where Arch deviated from the personality of a normal squirrel. He wasn't the type to run away from a fight. He was a squirrel with an adrenaline junky habit. It wasn't his fault that he craved excitement - it was everyone else, for being so boring. The few people that were able to break the monotonous lifestyle of a knight were his fellow Pycons, who could thankfully always provide at least something to destroy his daily routine and throw a bit of a spanner in the works. It was just the way he liked it, in fact. None of the humans - even his own patron knight, an Akalak, couldn't do that. They just wanted to have boring old training lessons where he did little to nothing, except for hop around and avoid all of their attacks. In some cases, it wasn't even very hard. The knights all wore incredibly heavy plate-mail armours and carried heavy weapons, that needed two hands to wield. They were good against the usual brand of opponents - humans, Nuit, Dhani, Zith. Monsters and the like. But against a small creature that was more nimble than others, and still sentient and intelligent enough to know a few weak spots around a humans legs? Useless, or even less so.

Those things weren't on his mind at that moment. He wasn't looking for a heavy person, with a heavy weapon. He just needed.. a fighter. Someone in this damn city that didn't need a war-hammer to kill someone. Heck, some people didn't even need a dagger to kill a person, but where were they, when he wanted a decent fight?

[Lythena]

Admittedly it had been a few days since Lythena had taken part in some decent sparring, she had taken a larger interest in practising ways to wield her longsword in a more nimble, dancing manner. She had found that because of the weight of a longsword’s blade, it should be -with the needed practise- possible to use its momentum to swing the longsword in a way that would resemble the blades of a windmill, be it for only a few turns. She still remembered what happened when she tried this for the first time, the massive hole in her bed’s footboard forever proof that flying longswords are dangerous projectiles. In hindsight it was probably not the cleverest of ideas to practise this indoors, however better a gap in a footboard than in a Syliran Knight. She had found a quiet place just outside the entrances to the pits to practise. Far enough from the path to not cleave someone in half should she lose her balance, of course. She seemed somewhat out of place for someone carrying around a Longsword, not clad in heavy armour like you would expect from someone with a two-handed sword. Just a simple white blouse, black pants and brown boots made her look more like a commoner than a fighter. Without the armour to weigh her down, it allowed her to be quick on her feet and dodge things most tincan knights would not bother with. She rested her sword against the wall for a moment, taking a minute to tie her brown long hair together in a more manageable ponytail using a thin leather strap. She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck to the left and right before grasping the hilt of her longsword and holding it firmly in both hands. She lifted the blade vertically, as straight as a candle, keeping it like that for while rather close to her body. She found the weight of the sword good practise to strengthen the muscles in her arms, essentially using it as a training weight. She then allowed the sword to start tipping towards the right, gravity quickly pulling the heavy blade downwards. By adjusting her hands on the hilt, she allowed the sword’s momentum to continue carrying it around, effectively spinning the sword around it’s length with the hilt in her hands as a center point of rotation. The steel edge cutting through the air creating a zooming sound as it revolved around, with Lythena keeping firmly in position. She tried to keep the sword spinning, keeping its momentum. It wasn’t until she started to move her feet that the beauty of this swordplay started to show. She took a deep breath as she turned her body, her hands holding the spinning hilt of the sword always kept in the same position in front of her caused the blade to follow her turn. She then adjusted her hands to allow the blade of the sword to drop forward horizontally as it was at its highest point, the momentum causing the blade to want to pull away from its normal center of rotation. She allowed it to, letting one hand go and still holding on to it with her left hand at the very base of the hilt. The weight of the sword carried her with it in a spin around her own axis, stretching the blade an additional arm length added to the length of the it around her, resulting in a large, fast traveling cleaving strike. After one rotation, she turned her hand to cause the blade to rise vertically again, cancelling some of it’s momentum with its own weight, returning it to it’s original vertical stationary position. She grasped the hilt with both hands again, slowly lowering it again to rest its tip against the ground. Placing both hands on top of the hilt to keep it in position, she rolled her shoulders some and exhaled loudly. Resting the blade against her own body, she opened her hands wide, stretching her fingers. She rubbed her palms and pushed lightly against the joints of her fingers. “I really need a pair of gloves...” she said to herself.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

His first thoughts sent his attention to Gerard, but the man never seemed to budge from his position at the edge of the pits. Evidently, Gerard had better things to do than actually engage in a bit of sparring or friendly competition - if his constant frown could be judged on behalf of his entire personality. The next few humans littering the Fighter Pits, almost all of which were dressed as commoners and using relative weapons of the like - short-swords, daggers, and a lot of bare-fist brawling - only dampened the squirrels spirits even more. The few that came to the Pits, were often in need of training and practice. Of course, that was also why Arch was there. But the difference between him and them, was the fact that he already had something else to fall back on. He'd taken precautions. And it was these very precautions that removed all of the excitement out of the matches and reduced them to a long and complicated ordeal of ducking and flipping around slow, clumsy swings.

That was, at least, until he caught on a girl. Stood on the edge of the Pits, nearly at the entrance itself, even though there were plenty of free spots lingering around the pits. Even though she seemed to be in the middle of a very complicated sequence of moves that spun the whole sword in wide arcs, he still hopped up from behind and as soon as she was done, called up to her. If anybody hadn't already gathered from his general in-your-face attitude, the squirrel didn't have much in terms of manners. They weren't something that one often learned in the Bronze Woods and therefore, why would a squirrel be in need of pleases and thank you's?

"Hey, you're good with that." The Pycons voice was somewhat deeper than one would expect from a creature barely five inches tall. However, it wasn't exactly 'normal' either. Somewhere between the two - slightly squeaky and yet still masculine - that was the squirrels voice. "I need help with my Py-Pole. Want to give it a try?" The pole that the squirrel held in both of his paws was pretty long; much longer than a normal long-spear that could be found on a normal fighter. It wasn't even made of wood.. it was tree resin and incredibly flexible, with a metal tip capping the top that looked sharp enough to definitely cut through skin when given the opportunity. Not that the squirrel had ever actually managed to cause significant harm with the metal tip.. no no. More was put into the force of momentum.. because the stick wasn't exactly light. Neither was the squirrel himself. Putting the two to good use, could make the thing very useful.. if he could time his jumps right, and get the correct aim on his opponent. "You might even find it fun!"

He knew that he would. Finally, someone with a blade.. and even though it looked pretty large, the girl had already shown that she could use it with some ease. No armour, either.. nothing to hold her down from jumping about a little and actually evading some of the squirrels attacks. Ooh, this was definitely going to be a fun little spar.

[Lythena]

She looked at the squirrel with a welcoming smile, enjoying the thought of another good sparring training. It had been days, possibly even weeks since she had done so. She had to stop herself from making a gleeful little bounce. It then dawned to her that she had never fought against a Pycon before. She looked at him, then at her sword, then back at him. Surely she’d have to be careful considering her sword was easily twice the size of him, if not more. She took a short moment to assess her own fighting style, her heavy swinging wouldn’t be so easily stopped should the Pycon not be able to dodge. ”Are you sure about this? I wouldn’t want to have two halves of you by the time we’re done.” She then turned her attention towards his weapon. Odd looking things, those Py-poles. Bouncing up and down with every jittery motion, it looked somewhat inaccurate to her. Must sure take quite a bit of skill to use one of those, she decided the Pycon surely must know what he’s doing. ”Wouldn’t mind some training, though. It’s been a while.” She sheathed her longsword, swinging its leather strap over her shoulder so the blade sitting in its scabbard rests on her back. The scabbard looking gorgeously decorated with handcrafted drawings resembling those that wielded the sword before her. She glanced over her shoulder, her ponytail bobbing from side to side with each stride. “So what are the rules?”

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

At the agreement, the squirrel had to stop himself from giving a little dance of joy. There were few and far people around the city, by that point, that were going to pose what the squirrel could call a significant threat.. but he had a good feeling about this person, he really did. Even though he didn't really know exactly why it was such a great feeling. "Getting a little confident already, are we? Heh, don't let that take hold too much there." Those that got cautious with the squirrels small size soon paid the consequences for it, because he certainly wasn't planning on being cautious. He'd dealt with more giant feet stomping about than he was pretty sure any human had, and he was still stood before the girl. That should have been evidence enough that he could hold himself when push came to shove. "Besides, as long as you don't go through the head, I'll be fine." At least the girl hadn't freaked out at the sign of a talking statue shaped like a squirrel, but he still wasn't sure if she knew the certain biology of Pycons that meant their heads had to be preserved for their life to continue.

"I'm still training, haha. But it's always good to find someone that knows their way around a sword and doesn't need to wear full heavy plate-mail in order to use it." In fact, it seemed the girl had gone for something that was in entirely the opposite direction. Simple clothes that looked perfect for maneuverability. Heck, he wanted all the knights to dress like that. Simple and practical, instead of wearing plate mail and boiled leather half the damn time, and something even bigger and heavier the rest of it. "I guess we should move off to a larger spot before we actually begin." As he spoke, he turned around and began walking off towards a larger gap in the small patches of various fights in various stages. Somewhere between a pair of commoners practicing some mix between a very martial style of unarmed combat and wrestling, and a pair that looked to be more like a teacher and student practicing with wooden training swords paired with shields.

As he was walking, he turned his head back to answer her final question. "Rules are.. don't aim for the head. Otherwise, I think we'll be good." His weapon couldn't exactly stab very hard, and the squirrel was all of five inches worth of clay in weight and size. He wasn't going to be breaking any bones.. yet. Though thankfully he held enough strength within to be able to at least knock someone over if he managed to get a good kick off at the right angle and the right spot. Which was exactly what he was hoping to achieve with the long pole that bobbed up and down rather comically along his little walk. "Don't be afraid to really get stuck in, you know." That was what the squirrel would be doing regardless.

[Lythena]

”Not as much confident as I am amused, I haven’t had a go with another fighter for quite some time now. Be gentle?” She followed the squirrel, enjoying the indeed comical spectacle of the bouncing Py-Pole. She gave a quick nod to his reply about the rules, understanding what he meant perfectly. She took her longsword out of its scabbard, placing the scabbard carefully aside from where they were stood. She took the longsword in her left hand, letting gravity take the blade downwards only to twist her wrist to guide it in a circular motion back upwards alongside her. As the blade came up vertically again she moved it in front of her, taking the hilt with her right hand this time to repeat her earlier motion but on her other side, keeping the blade’s momentum. As it rose up vertically again, she this time allowed it to calmly drop sideways, catching the blade about halfway down its length with her left hand. She held the blade now as if it was a stick, one hand on the hilt the other flat against the blade. She cracked her neck from left to right again and rolled her shoulders to loosen her joints a bit. Bending through her knees lightly as she took up a defensive posture, slightly lower than she would normally due to her opponent’s size. ”Shall we?” she said, smirking a little. Her eyes and lips giving away how much she’s looking forward to this little combat training. Her glinting gaze and perky lips curled in a smirk saying more than words. She inspected the Pycon’s body for a moment, not hitting the head should be somewhat doable. This was judging from a stationary standpoint however. What would happen should the Pycon be sprinting and dodging like any squirrel would? One miscalculated swing because of a jittery dodge and that could be it. She hesitated for a moment, shown by her posture flinching for a mere second at the thought of what could happen. She shrugged it off, trusting in both her own and the Pycon’s skill.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

While the female prepared herself and swung the sword around a few more times, in what the squirrel could only guess would be preparation for the oncoming battle, the squirrel got a few more glances over the rather complex hand-movements. Yes, she'd do nicely. "We shall. And don't worry, I'll go gentle." He didn't feel like he'd really need to go gentle. If anything, she'd be the one going gentle on him. But nevertheless, she looked ready and so the squirrel readied the pole in both of his paws. Because of its incredibly flexible nature, he had to spread his paws as far as he could physically manage in order to stop the thing from bouncing about during the fight too much. He'd need it for countering attacks and whatnot.. or at least, the few he'd be able to counter. It was much easier to simply lean to the side, or hop to the side of most swings that came his way. Most humans used that method - swinging straight down in vertical, or along in low and horizontal strikes. Either ones were pretty simple to avoid, when most found it so awkward to just swing at a small target that they left open plenty of obvious hints.

It wasn't like the squirrel didn't leave many hints either though. He had to ready himself in the particular pose.. with the pole held tightly and the metal tip pointed up to face Lythena. Although there wasn't too much distance between them, the pole was long enough that he didn't have to point it straight up into the air.. it was more of a diagonal that made it easier to hold and maneuver. "Alright then. Guess we go." He had no intention of letting her make the first swing.. so the tip was wrenched down as he took as long, sweeping steps as he could manage to close the gap between them. He wasn't very good with long distances, given his small size.. and although he wasn't as fantastic running on two legs as he was with all four, he could still move at round-about the same speed as a regular human, and he was going at full sprint. He needed to.. because as he pulled the pole back, it trailed behind him and dragged along the ground lightly. It was better than having the thing wobbling in front of him, after all.. and it meant that when he thought he'd come close enough, he could bring the whole pole straight over his own head in a two-handed swing.

The most obvious target to hit, would be around the shins and the feet. Hopefully by bringing himself up close, he'd be able to make a swing before his opponent could get a step backwards. And especially, in case she decided she wanted to make the first swing instead. Then he'd most likely have to pull off some acrobatic measures to avoid being smacked around the head with the very sharp end of a big sword.

[Lythena]

Lythena inspected the way the Pycon was charging at her, weapon trailing behind him carving the sandy underground with it’s tip. She waited, and waited, and waited.. Was she even going to do anything? It seemed like she wanted him to make the first strike. It took up to the point where the Pycon was in striking range for her to make a move, she dropped to one knee to get down on his height some more and in the hopes to somewhat throw him off of his expectations, readying her sword still held as if it was a staff with one hand against the blade one on the hilt. She looked like she was ready to parry a swing of the Py-Pole should the squirrel choose to do so, it was only a matter of milliseconds before he would likely reveal which side the swing would be coming from. She put some early pressure onto the ground with her kneeling leg in case her plan would fail and she had to make a roll. At points like this she was always happy she didn’t choose to wear an iron second skin as swift, adaptive movements such as these would be slow and almost impossible. Kneeling down with so much extra weight would put you in a serious disadvantage, rather than a possible advantage which she was hoping to achieve with her current low to the ground position. She knew that an opponent so small would immediately see her virtually unprotected legs as a fine target, so this also made it a fine occasion to practise positions such as these. Uncomfortable as it may be with using a large weapon in a position such as this, she still found some importance in practising it. After all, taking a cut to the leg renders you unable to properly continue standing on both legs, so what do you do then if you have no experience in some defensive stances while kneeling? The squirrel proved to be the ideal sparring partner for her to be able to practise such stances. She just hoped she would be quick enough on her feet, or knees, to be able to dodge his fast, jittery movements. She focussed hard, trying to read some of his intentions from his body language that would betray the direction of his planned swing. She gripped the hilt of the sword firmly with her one hand, ready to jerk the blade into any direction to attempt a parry. Come on little one, what side are you picking?

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He'd had a good feeling, and he wouldn't be disappointed. He'd never come across a knight that had decided to lower themselves to his level.. even though, the more he thought about it, the more logical it was. Standing high and mighty was all well and good above someone with a foot or two in difference, but one of them was five inches tall and the other.. well, Arch really couldn't take a guess at the size. Perspective meant that even if she would have been tiny by human comparison, she was still a veritable mountain to the diminutive squirrel. Unfortunately, because the squirrel was already moving, he didn't really have that much time to think all of the implications over. He probably should have used the pole as a vault in order to swing his entire body into a firm kick or punch to the face.. which was now easily within the reach of the heavy pole, as long as he got the right movement. Instead, he swung the whole length of the pole for Lythena's side, just after sliding both of his paws as far down the length of the Py-Pole as he could manage.. so that they were pretty close to the base.

It meant that as the pole whipped around, the tip that had been dragging along the ground was caught on the dust, and the entire pole didn't actually swing.. rather, it bent like a bow, and tightened more and more as the swing came around. It kept going, and going.. just past the point where one would think a normal pole would snap in two, before the tension in the core of the pole became too much and the tip whipped around in a single, sudden motion.. at quite a bit of speed. The entire swing had a few ticks of delay to it, because of this.. although it was comparable to 'charging' the weapon before releasing it. On top of giving the metal tip speed, it gave it momentum.. which, unfortunately, was one of the larger drawbacks as well as a larger perk. It depended on how well one would be able to use it.. because keeping such momentum in the weapon for the duration of a fight could make it incredibly dangerous. But not using it, would make it much more difficult to build up sufficient power. The squirrel.. wasn't very used to it, yet. He'd been shown a few things by his father, but that was about it.

Because he'd picked the right side of Lythena, at least he could get a good counter-clockwise swing if he missed. He wasn't very good at the offensives, admittedly.. and he'd been cautioned over and over, that if he ever came across someone that was as fast as him, then he'd have serious trouble surviving.. but it was the defense that he had spent so long trying to master. Defense was always more important in his eyes.. and besides. If he ever actually needed to launch himself into the air, he wouldn't be stuck there like so many other Pycons would. He had his tail - a huge counter-weight that he could flick left and right when needed, to change position and change direction in the ground and in the air. The perfect secret weapon.

[Lythena]

Her predictions were somewhat correct, she had anticipated a sideways strike coming for her, which is why she was holding the longsword in such a manner that she could drop it down with either hand on either side of her body and erect it like a steel pole to block. Lythena moved her right hand holding the hilt of the sword downwards, placing the end of it against the ground as she held the blade itself upwards with her other hand. Her sword acting like a defensive ward which the Py-Pole would strike in its sideways swing. She made sure to let the squirrel’s weapon smack against the flat side of the blade, since she wasn’t quite sure of the weapon’s actual strength when clashed directly against the sharp edge of a longsword. She wasn’t too keen on damaging her opponent's weapons, since you never know how much value they put to it. It was an effort she hoped others would bring up for her as well, considering the sword was her only personal heritage. She was quite curious as well to how the pole would react, seeing as how bendy it is. It might as well bounce back its momentum towards the other side after colliding with the sword. Should that happen, she was unsure of how the squirrel would react. He might just as well keep the momentum going and strike towards her other side, it’s after all what she would do. She stretched her arms to place the sword at the furthest position of her body that they could manage, just in case the pole would stretch further than anticipated around the sword. That metal tip did look rather menacing after all, be it somewhat small. She was impressed by the weapon’s capabilities, proving to be much more worthy of being called a weapon than she thought before while observing its comical bounciness. As she placed the sword into it’s guarding position, she would attempt to bring her left leg around in a low to the ground sweeping kick, the edges of her boots grinding against the ground because of her kneeling position caused the kick to perhaps be a bit slower than she would have hoped, though she went for it nonetheless. Worst case the squirrel would have to dodge it and she’d still gain a small window of opportunity, she figured. After all the effects of her blocking of the flexible Py-Pole still had to be seen. Whether it would be in her advantage or not would be shown virtually instantly, she only hoped it’d be positive..