Open [The Vitrax] A warm welcome to the Vitrax (Clyde)

[Irriari]

Her dive was far from controlled, fueled by the furious blood sight that pumped through her veins. As the human stepped to the side slightly and faced her, Irriari tried to backpeddle in the air, a move that was largely ineffective. Her momentum was lessened, but not by nearly enough. The zith had the time to brace her arms in front of her form before she hit. There wasn’t enough time for her wings to buffet the fall or for anything to be done about the searing pain of the impact. Her body rattled as she struck the staff. While it didn’t occur to her in the moment, no normal staff would have her bouncing away and back into the ground of the Vitrax. Irriari landed hard, crumpling on impact as her hands landed beneath her. A second later, the staff struck her ribs and torso, leaving an angry welt underneath her fur. Clenching her teeth against the pain, she focused on getting back into a position where she could retaliate. Winded, angered, and hurt, Irriari glared at the human, cursing in zithanese through clenched teeth. Each breath she tried drawing into her lungs came short and stopped before she had nearly enough to recover from the pain. Pushing herself up from the ground awkwardly with her right hand, the zith righted herself as best as she could. Her legs were spread slightly apart and she favored the leg that hadn’t taken as much damage from the impact. While it galled her to have to go on the defensive, there was no other choice. The start of the fight left her in far worse condition that she normally was by the midpoint. If the human wanted to stand there this time, he was more than welcome to do so. It would allow her time to recover from her botched attempt at hurting him.

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde's maneuver worked far better than he could have hoped for, if not too well. His plan had been to use her forward momentum, and push it farther, making her strike the ground. However his blows was a bit delayed, and the zith was moving a bit faster than he'd thought, so that when his blow did strike her she had already collided with the ground. Perhaps it also would have gone smoother for the Zith if she hadn't been so sure of her own triumph, and hadn't committed so fully to the strike against Clyde, thinking to end the battle on her first blow. Apparently she hadn't expected Clyde to be able to see her coming, let alone react at all. She did manage to strike arms first, but this proved to not only soften the blow somewhat, but also result in her arms being beneath her, thus meaning she couldn't even ward off the blow from his staff by throwing up an arm. Even so, a single blow to the back was all that Clyde did, as he himself had already committed to the action of a single blow, which ended up chasing the zith to the ground and striking her there, instead of being a blow that by itself forced her there. She had done that by herself. As the Zith attempted to catch her breath, Clyde paused for a moment, allowing her to recover. He could have struck then, while she was still recovering, and would have if it had been true combat, but in a spar it made little sense to attack a defenseless foe. How would he get better unless he faced an actual combatant? Instead he settled on slowly circling her, Cha pointed out, both hands gripping near the one end, with a half foot or so sticking out near him past where he gripped. The rest of the staff, the majority of it, was on the other side of his grip, and was pointing towards the Zith on the ground, at least four feet of wood or so. Clyde did not get too close, certainly not within reach as he circled, instead keeping the end of the staff a foot or so clear of touching her. Close enough that he could thrust it forward to smack at her with the end if she came at him at foot level, but far enough away that if she tried to grab Cha and yank her from him, he could likely pull back and keep her from doing so. If she however attempted to take flight once more, he would take a step forward and attempt another two handed strike, this time angling diagonally from the side and above, instead of a directly overhead strike like the one that had struck her while she was on the ground. As she rose from the ground, her image shimmered, the heat haze diffusing. At the same time her movements became a bit odd in his aura sight, jerky, as if several of her were moving, and taking up similar space. It took Clyde a moment to realize he was seeing the same thing he had once seen with Nolan. Her moving to a space, and then her actually doing so a second or two later. But then her focus on the task of rising to her feet once more was a pretty clear cut focus, and so perhaps one that was a bit easier to read. Either way, it meant he was growing closer to reaching the desired niche of her Aura information, or perhaps was even know reaching at the edges of it. He'd yet to use the technique in combat, and had only used it before by accident, but it seemed that using it would surely give him another advantage in combat, even with his less than stunning staff skills.

[Irriari]

Why hadn’t he struck her while she was down? Nothing would have stopped her from doing the same to him. Sparring or not, the objective of fighting was to dominate your opponent. You should be the nightmare they wake from each morning, drenched in sweat and shaking. Turning her thoughts back to the battle at hand, the zith waited, doing all she could to push the pain in her torso out of the realm of feeling. Each breath sent pain ricocheting through her nerves, dancing from her skin, to muscle, to bone, and then back to her skin again. That was the secret of pain that few humans ever had the misfortune of learning. Pain is not a unidimensional feeling. It is multidimensional, depending first on the source and then on the area impacted. Past injuries played a small part. Many months of her training had focused on pushing that pain away and ignoring the echoes that pulsed through her body as she twisted and repositioned. Giving into pain was the worst thing a warrior could do. It signaled a lack of self-control and marked you as prey. The zith were far from prey. Her people were the pain in the night that kept housewives awake praying behind barricaded doors. Knowing this, the zith endeavored to put her pain out of reach and out of mind. There was a battle to be had. The human circled her as if she was a tasty meal that he couldn’t decide which course to partake in first. Irriari laughed then, not bothering to pivot to face him. He didn’t deserve to see the fire in her eyes until she was on top of him, clawing at the arteries in his throat. Still, she waited. Staves were slow weapons, especially when they were nearly as tall as the man who wielded them. The zith knew now that she had underestimated him. He was no master, but he was hardly inexperienced. Another misstep would signal the end of the spar and a blow to her pride that would hurt more than any pain he could dream of inflicting. Now determined, the zith waited, listening, muscles tense, fingertips moving ever so slightly in anticipation of the strike that was bound to come. She breathed in, reveling in the pain and the blood sight that sharpened her focus and made her crave the fight all the more. There would be no more taunting, no more childish games. The human had gone beyond that when he proved himself as a worthy opponent. She waited longer, knowing that any humans watching would be unnerved and disappointed as chimes went by. Every hunt had an end, and the zith was determined to make sure that this fight ended with the human in front of her on the ground, separated from his precious weapon. The look in his eyes would be more than enough to pay for the pain he had caused.

[Clyde Sullins]

While many of the Stryfe might have struck the Zith while it was down, Clyde did not. He had his own reasoning, based in the logic of chaos that he so often thought with. Part of it was simply a test, wanting to prove his own skills against a ready foe, not a weakling. But it was also such a weak betrayal, that it was not even worth doing. While many of the Stryfe would have leaped upon such a action, thinking them to be doing Rhysol's will, Clyde saw things from a larger more long term perspective. The mark of a betrayal was not simply numbers, but the potency of each. And how potent was breaking the trust that did not exist between two people newly met? Little if any at all. True betrayals were based in trust, a sudden change from a perspective of honor and belief. How then could he gain her trust, and make her believe he could be trusted, if he instead sprung on such a weak opportunity? It was only when one truly trusted a person, that they could truly hurt and betray you. He did not even consider it a true betrayal if he were to spring on her then. As Clyde circled the Zith's perspective shifted once more, focusing not just on Clyde but on Cha in his hand, his weapon itself. Clyde could see for a moment a view of Cha, as if seen from the Zith's perspective. For a moment he did not understand it fully, as he was also looking at Cha's aura while he fought. But after a moment he saw it as it was, a shifting of her awareness and perception unto Cha herself. As Clyde circled though, he began to wonder if this Zith actually had any fight in her, or if she instead wished to allow Clyde to take all of the steps. Baiting. She had done likewise with her flying, and it seemed she was attempting a similar tactic as she laid herself down. The pain echoing off of her was strong, and thus easily detected, but faded as time passed, becoming less prominent. Perhaps this meant the pain was gone, or perhaps it simply meant the Zith was less aware of it, and was not allowing herself to dwell or sense it. Either way it seemed to imply that the Zith could attack, but was instead waiting, waiting for Clyde to move. Clyde simply stared back at the Zith, letting his breathing come slow and steady, a small smile on his lips. Since it seemed the Zith wished to let Clyde move first, Clyde finally moved, attacking in a slow and simple move initially, but then speeding up. Since he already had his staff held out at length, so as to keep the Zith at bay and from getting to close, he made a forward thrust, a pair of them, moving to make a stabbing thrust twice aimed at the Zith with the blunt tip of the staff. If she attempted to grasp at it, or to take it from his hand, Clyde would yank back, trying to dislodge it from her grip, and then smack outward trying to hit at her hand, hoping to punish her for putting her hands within the range of his staff. Otherwise he would likely follow up with a downward strike, trying to slam it once more into the Zith from atop her. It all depended upon how she reacted, and what she saw from the shifting reading of her aura.

[Irriari]

She heard him moving forward as he stepped and the zith pivoted towards him, ready to maneuver around whatever it was the petching human had planned. Her bruised ribs ached in protest at the sudden movement, but she paid them little mind. If this was a real fight focusing on such insignificant matters would get her killed. Then again, if this was more than a sparring match, the zith would have likely already lost. She expected an attack that was far more nuanced. Instead, the human stabbed at her like she was particularly tasty morsel he meant to skewer off a plate. At first his staff moved slowly but as he put more of his weight behind the attack the staff’s assault hastened in response. The zith moved left, avoiding the first jab narrowly. The air that was displaced by the movement moved the fur on the side of her waist. As he pulled the staff back in for a second attempt, she moved forward, pushing the balls of her feet into the ground, springing towards him, intent on clearing the short distance between the two. In close quarters combat a staff could be useful, provided that you could always keep your opponent on edge and at bay. The Elders had demonstrated this multiple times, punishing any young zith who didn’t dare to close the gap. After twenty bells of getting repeatedly jabbed and hit in their ribs and shoulders, even the smallest of zith always lept towards the massive Elder that held the staff. A battle of attrition only favored the small if they had an advantage. Irriari was close now, close enough to use her built up momentum to tackle him the human to the ground. Whether he actually was separated from his staff was hardly her concern. Unless he managed to roll on top of her and pin her with the weapon, she was fine. Her claws were far more useful in close quarters than an overly long stick.

[Clyde Sullins]

As Clyde moved in for the attack, Clyde watched the dual-ed images of the Zith, that of her mundane body and motions, and of her overlaid aura image only visible to Clyde. His first attack missed, as she dodged to her left to avoid his initial jab. However it was as he began the second jab, that he saw her aura body shift quickly, and saw a view of a shifting of focus beyond the staff and instead to his own body. It seemed she was going to attempt to bypass his staff, to get within his guard, and attack him directly, instead of dealing with his staff. It wasn't a totally unexpected move, but that did not mean Clyde could easily react and deal with it. He knew if it weren't for the advance notice his aura sight had allowed, a gifting of her foreshadowed intent as she shifted her focus from Cha to him, he would have been totally caught off guard by her tactic. As it was it would be tricky at best to react in time, due to his limited combat skills. But even a extra moment of time to respond could mean much in the fast action and reactions of combat. Clyde began to turn, pushing away from the path she was likely to take, even as she began to move at him. When the zith moved in past Cha and attempted to tackle him, he had already shifted his weight and turned his body so as to not take the hit directly, and had begun to push away from the spot he had been standing in. Instead of striking him head on she hit him at an odd angle, giving additional force to his motion to push away from the spot, sending him to the ground in the way he had pushed off, instead of in the same way that her tackle would carry her. Pulling Cha in close to his chest, Clyde turned the throw into a roll, though a rather ungainly one, and managed to come to a stop on his back with Cha still in his hand after several revolutions. Thanks to his Auristics he had still been able to keep tabs on the Zith, able to know where she was in relation to himself. Coming to a stop on the floor where he had rolled to, Clyde brought Cha back up, attempting to ward off any incoming blows as he caught his breath, and tried to push past the aching in his body. His left side hurt from where the Zith had struck him, even if only with a glancing blow. His right shoulder and elbow, along with his knee, had all been struck during his ill performed roll, and also ached fiercely. As he caught his breath Clyde spoke, somewhat distractedly. “I forget Zith, what is your name? I wager you would prefer to not just be called Zith.”

[Irriari]

Fully committed to haphazard strike, the zith barreled into him with all the grace of a rampaging glass beak. He turned as she dove, preventing her from hitting the center of his mass. Her torso and shoulder ached from the attempt, but the pain was invigorating- for now. The blood sight surged within her core, reminding her that she could fight him if she committed to each move fiercely and reacted impulsively. In the world of trained combatants such a style was rarely utilized. If one stopped caring about their own chances of survival they could be kited about and slowly worn down. In addition, a skilled opponent could use the rage they funneled into their assault as a point of leverage for devastating blows. Knowing all of these things, the zith pressed on, determined to keep the human on the ground where he belonged. Irriari ignored his question. Talking during combat was for those who were looking for an out. She breathed in sharply, forcing air into her chest in defiance of the pain that resided there. Breathing was important in longer bouts of combat and she didn’t intend to spend precious time gasping for air while the human lay on the ground behind her. Capitalizing on his compromised position was of utmost importance. The zith covered the few feet that lay between them quickly and threw herself downward towards his prone form, arm cocked back, fingers curled into a punch aimed at his stomach. The momentum she gained from her fall was focused entirely into her fist. Knocking the air out of the human was far more important than injuring his ribs or displacing his from his staff. The fact that she would collide with his staff and land hard on her knees didn’t worry the zith. Combat was a battle of pain tolerance and prowess in equal measure. She had plenty of experience with the former and she relished the chance to finally corner the slippery human.

[Clyde Sullins]

The longer the battle went on, and the more Clyde witnessed the Zith's physical actions tied in with her aura reading, the better Clyde came to understand and predict her. Whereas when he had begun sensing her intent in battle it had been more of a vague guess, a notion, now he was seeing commonalities, tells and such that stuck out after being seen more than once, using his other more mundane skills tied in with the vague notions of the aura reading to come to a more comprehensive and likely solution. It was not perfect, but when added together it did much as compared to what he could have done with only his staff skills. While with mundane sight there might not have been anything to see, the surge the Zith felt as she commenced an attack, the focus of her mind shifting to her target, the feelings, all tied together to paint a picture that Clyde was increasingly able to read. Even her physical sight as seen from a non perspective as allowed by his aura reading at a basic level, from all sides and seeing better detail than what his mundane vision would allow, gifted him with many smaller motions and things that helped him predict when she was readying an attack. If they were to battle again he did not doubt he would pick up on such things even faster, as clearly there was a unique learning curve to each persons aura and body motions, especially when doing this specific type of reading. Though she felt pain it was mixed in with other emotions, ones that seemed off to Clyde and his human mind and understanding. Or perhaps it was simply his lack of a warriors blood lust that made her reactions seem foreign, and not her innate Zith nature. Perhaps all bloody warriors felt as such. Clyde did not have enough people to compare to too know though, and so this was left as a small mystery. When the Zith came at Clyde again, rushing in to attack as she had done several times before, this time attempting to take advantage of his position on the ground, it wasn't a total surprise. A sudden attack, hoping to be unexpected and to catch Clyde off guard before he had time to react. But even from the ground Clyde was able to keep a constant view of her from the barest brush of her aura. Clyde watched the paring of the Zith's essence, a silhouette signifying her focus as it shifted forward and flowed over him. Clearly not a direct relation to what she would do, but clear enough for him to see where her focus was going on him. A second silhouette over shadowed her arm, giving him the notion that she might attack with it, a fact that would soon be proved true as she came in with a full body thrown punch. However while Clyde was on the ground, he still had his staff, which had far more range than the Zith's limb. Along with that she acted with a belief in her own element of surprise and suddenness, with full dedication to her attack. As the Zith tensed her muscles, and began to make her motion, Clyde brought Cha to bear, as one might a pike or a spear. As he had seen, her focus was on him and her own arm, as she threw herself down at him with her arm cocked, bringing her entire body weight down on her limb. As the Zith descended Clyde made a thrust upward at her chest, aimed at taking her past the limb that was descending, the arm, and striking her before she had a chance to get within range. He hoped that her sudden move that had been intended to take him by surprise would work in his favor, committing her to the action and giving her little room to maneuver or stop, watching as her true body moved along to meet with her silhouette and the path that it had taken. If the staff head landed as he hoped, he would thrust up and back, bringing Cha up over his head, attempting to carry on with the Zith's forward momentum, in order to make her go right over him in a forward tumble guided by Cha, instead of forward and down as she was currently attempting with her attack. Hopefully that would give Clyde time to recover as she did likewise, and by the time she managed to orient herself and regain her feet, he would have regained his own and would have stood up, if all went as planned. For a half moment Clyde wondered if his use of Auristics was perhaps cheating, allowing him to fight better than normal, but he supposed in truth it was little more in this instance than a small bit of foreknowledge and intelligence gathering. A wise warrior always gathered what intelligence he could before the battle. The fact that it was gathered magically made no difference in that regard, no more than the other more mundane information gathering and assessing skills that Clyde used.

[Irriari]

Irriari saw that he had managed to move his staff in a desperate attempt to fend off her blow. The staff was too long to be maneuvered easily from the ground, but it did provide a measure of defense. The zith let the end of the staff hit her, knowing that without his arm strength behind the weapon it wouldn’t be painful enough to break bone. It still hurt a petching shykeload and she yelped in response to the sudden pain. Unexpected pain was far worse than pain you knew was coming. Unexpected pain had the ability to take a confident warrior and turn him into a mess of doubt and sniveling cries for help. The zith gritted her teeth harshly and pressed on, determined to finally make sure this damnable human felt some of the pain he had forced her to endure. After the staff hit her rib, it moved past her, gliding off her chest and through the gap between her arm and torso. The attack slowed her speed significantly, but it didn’t stop her entirely. Nothing short of dismemberment would stop her. Her limbs surged with the energy of her blood sight, urging her on to rip, tear, and destroy the human in front of her. Had she not been sparring, she would have clawed at his face instead, seeking to tear the tender flesh off his skull. As her knuckles sunk into the flesh of the human’s sternum she smiled cruelly. The hit was not without consequence, and her knuckles screamed in protest. Wary of the human’s staff and how terribly close it was to her left wing, the zith pushed herself up with her hand that wasn’t damaged. She stood at the far end of the range of his staff and took a moment to breathe and reassess the situation.

[Clyde Sullins]

As the end of his staff collided with the Zith in a thrusting strike, Clyde heard a sudden cry, a sound escaping her lips in reaction to the blow. If he wasn't limited to fighting with his staff alone, he could have done far more with Cha... But then if that was the case she would have been a roasted heap before even getting within two paces. And while he was skilled beyond compare with his Reimancy, his staff work was what he needed to work on. Roasting a impudent zith alive would do little to improve his more martial skills, even if he had the ability. However though his blow from the staff he had aimed at her did manage to hit, the attack itself did not come out as he had envisioned. Perhaps it was the way he had attacked, or perhaps her own reaction to the blow, but the staff ended up glancing off after the initial strike. Before he had time to react or bring Cha back, the Zith thrust forward with her limb, albeit a much slowed one, with a punch connecting with his chest. In response Clyde let out a small stifled grunt, a small throb of pain left behind by her furry hand. However after that the Zith pushed back, bringing herself back out of range of a strike from his staff. Tactics. It was a slow game, but something Clyde was slowly getting better at. Clearly he had not planned out the blow as well as he should have. In hindsight, and looking over her, it occurred to Clyde that one possible weak point of a Zith was their wings. Without it they were nothing but a short furry human with big nails. A possible tactic or target for an attack another time. After the small grunt Clyde grinned back at the furry woman, smiling as he took in a deep calming breath and felt another throb from his chest. “Alright, that's enough training for now. Time to assess, reflect, and move onward. It was a pleasant enough spar with you.” Letting out a sigh, Clyde would get to his feet, assuming that the Zith did not attack him and stop him from doing so after he called a cease to the spar. Clyde would take a moment to gather his breath, rubbing absentmindedly at the small ache in his chest for a moment. Normally such a blow would have done much more, but perhaps in part due to his enchanted robes it felt as little more than a ache. He was unsure if it would even bruise, as if he'd been punched through a more padded substance than a pair of robes. “You still never told me your name. I'm Clyde. Clyde Sullins. Ebonstryfe, and stuff.” If the zith did not attack Clyde, and responded to his statement, Clyde would likely nod, and head out of the training hall soon after. He saw little use in prolonged fighting, and felt he had learned about as much as he could from the one spar. From his own experience as a teacher he knew it was a good idea to mull over and think back on things afterward, instead of doing too much at once.