Closed Ebb and flow, tactics in motion. (Poppy, Archie)

[Alexander Faircroft]

Branch from Archie's main training thread.

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

An indignant response from Avrial. Alex simply smiled listening to her attempt to file a grievance. For what? Him giving her praise? She was so petty it was almost amusing. He could play her like a fiddle and get away with it. That woman has an ego the size of a mountain. Just as cold too. I'll leave her to Ser Imass, wouldn't want me showing her what i cna truly do now that i know some of her tricks. However with the few actions that had occurred around the training grounds another face had meandered in. Funnily enough it wasn’t one that Avrial was liable to take offence with for turning up late. Garland. A friend of Alex’s and one he’d held his own against for a little while with a similar weapon. Despite the vast difference in experience and time served. Still Alex marched off clapping down the visor on his helm.

His partner for this part of the exercise was Poppy. He hadn't seen much of her style nor her strengths. However if it had been Ball or Arch he was up against Alex would be on his back again in seconds flat. Against Garland he would be able to hold his own a little better than last time but it was clearly in garlands favour. Against either Imass or Avrial, the chance couldn’t be taken that Alex would show up a knight so those two were out of the question. Ross, Alex was familiar with facing and as such would serve no purpose there, and the same with Ferrin. So Poppy was the logical choice for him to square off against.

Still the advance of the sergeant and the weapon master. Gave him something to consider. Perhaps he’d over stepped a line. An unspoken boundary, however Alex wasn’t about to let another thing slide against someone he knew. Before returning over too Poppy for the exercise Alex stopped off infront of Sera Slyth. Taking a moment he paused in front of her with a small salute.
“Sera Slyth, I do apologize for my actions. I still hold fast to the belief that it is in our duty as knights to uphold the teachings of Tyveth as well, which are those of truth, honour and chivalry. I simply spoke the truth, and was attempting to defend the honour of a fellow squire. If my words gave offence I do apologize.” A sincere smile backed up his words as he spoke to her. As a man of religion there was no cause for her to doubt him nor the voracity of his words. Because he truly meant what he’d said. And he knew exactly that she’d take a certain way being one of the extremely prickly Stalinsas.

Another salute to Sera Slyth and Alex headed back over to Poppy. His bastard sword drawn, his shield in place. Alex hissed a breath out through his teeth beneath the steel of his helm. He fell into stance, his shield raised his left foot forwards his blade resting along the shield. He squared off against Poppy. Alex paced around her slowly, keeping his movements slow and angular he circled her, willing her to turn and face him else he’d have a straight shot at her back. He was trying to goad an attack from her willing her to make the first move. "Poppy, feel free to attack first."

Alex knew that Archie would be watching him in this exercise, and that Archie would be giving both him and Poppy pointers. However Alex had already had some teaching from Arch before and had worked on it, he’d extrapolated on some simple choice words and turned them into a full fighting force. Alex was working on something that Greyheart had told him. Manipulation of information. Feed as little as you can and take in as much as you can. And right now he was attempting to fish for information from poppy.

[Poppy Blackburn]

The arguments that were happening seemed to get larger and larger as more people became involved in it, be they squires or knights. At some point, Poppy lost track of what was going on, and simply settled for being confused and with not a damned clue of what was going on.

All she knew was that it was definitely not friendly with all those implied insults and hostile tone and all. She return to knowing what was going on when when the Pycon she now know as Archailist gave the order to split into pairs for their training. Looks like the they were finally going to get this thing started after all, after fears that this might dissolve into nothing more than squabbles and politics.

The rest of the squires broke up into the pairs they have been assigned to, Poppy simply focused onto her own affairs, as she did not really know anyone present except for Alexander Faircroft himself. Thankfully, the pycon noticed that and had paired up with the good lad. Poppy was both incredibly excited and wary at the same time, as this would be the first time the both of them will have a chance to spar with each other and get a taste of each other's combat capabilities.

Knowing that Alexander would be far more skilled than her when it comes to weapons usage, and would likely get the best of her, a sense of thrill came over her. Poppy loved putting her skills to the test, as she worked on various different ways to improve her paltry skills. Improvement was ever a present thought, and that was why she was here today, even without her patron present to watch or oversee her progress. Fighting a stronger opponent would no doubt be a great learning experience, as only through hardship, would one get the best learning experience.

Standing over to face her fellow squire, she could see that his weapon of choice was a bastard sword, was not too far in similarity to the longsword she used. It was larger than her weapon, with its hilt build for a two-handed grip, and its blade heftier compared to her blade which was usually handled with a one-handed grip and a sharper pointed edge. Their shields were identical in shape and design, both being steel heater shields, but hers was slightly larger than his, which provided more protection but less mobility. Seeing Alexander all suited up in his plate armour and helmet, complete with his battle ready stance, intimidated her a fair bit although she was clad equally in plate armour and helmet.

Lowering down the visor in her gothic sallet helmet, she watched as he squared off against, beginning to circle around her slowly, goading her into making the first attack. She tried to maintain a constant calm and steadiness in her breathing, but Poppy was not the type to usually make the first attack. She continued to turn to face his front, to avoid exposing her back to his. But they didn’t have all day, and her opponent didn’t look like he was about to make the first move, so raising her shield in an angle to provide protection for a possible counterattack, she struck, sending a quick slash towards his left shoulder.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Against poppy Alex was trying to weigh up how she’s act. Her arsenal matched his similarly. Longsword and heater shield. Whereas his was turned and angled to allow for both blocking and easier parrying hers was much larger and set to primarily block. The swords were different as well, a longsword smaller than his better for thrusting and short cuts. A single hand primarily sword. Whereas Alex’s set up screamed aggression. Hers whispered defensive. An odd mishmash. However it was one that Alex was becoming more and more used too. In the match up though letting the defensive person attack first was often a good way to open up a small nick in their steel wall.

Alex watched the sword strike come towards him. Felling much more confidant in his skills as of late he leant into the attack using the added length of hiss word to push the blade to one side and instead of attacking the side of her body coated by the heater shield. He parried her sword with his, and using his free arm drove the point of his shield towards her now completely opened side. He was hoping to catch her in the side and knock her off balance a little.

His intent wasn’t to cause harm with this attack just to let her know that as much as she wanted to use the shield as a defensive weapon as well the overall effect being to let her know that whatever you held or didn’t hold could be used as a weapon. Archie was giving overall lessons however Alex was also doing a little private tutoring of his own against her. Using the little he’d gleaned off of Archie to deliver his own method of teaching.

Still if his attack missed he’d have to fall back and loose his pressed advantage to regain his stance and angle up for another assault. Her Defence he knew was solid, or at least he could see she was prioritizing that. Perhaps she was hoping to ware him out before he could break it?

All these thoughts and more poured through his head as he came up with strategy after strategy of how to turn her greatest asset into her greatest weakness. After all that was combat one-o-one, break their best weapon and they have to fall back on something they can’t use as well. Alex intended fully to do just as much.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

From one match to the next he leapt, throwing off snippets here and there - as much as he could afford, when juggling four different pairs at once. Out of all of them, though, it was Alex and Poppy that he lingered the most. "Now that's what I like to see..." he said to himself out of earshot. The two seemed to have chosen the most common setup; a shield and a sword. They actually looked like real knights when they flipped down their visors and prepared for combat. They definitely knew each-other as well, if Alex knew her name. Poppy. Well, alright then.

He hopped up onto one of the lower walls at the side of the arena to get a better overview of the scene and watched as the first attack came and went. "Poor move, Poppy. Every attack exposes your body in more ways than one; don't make such a foolhardy move unless you know you're going to hit," he called out. It was evident that Alex had taken all of his lessons to heart because damn, he'd worked out a weakness rather quickly. If they weren't both covered in more metal than an Isur's arm, that probably would have hurt quite a lot. "Also, aim for the legs." Classic Pycon teaching. "His shield doesn't reach down that far, it only covers the chest and face. Aim lower, for an open spot..." he advised, drifting off for a few ticks, watching to see if she'd actually do it, before carrying on, ... which should bait him into lowering his shield enough that you can headbutt him."

Yes, he was aware that he was probably giving a lot more advice to Poppy than Alex... but he knew that the boy-squire was a pretty fast learner anyway. He'd pick up soon enough what counter-moves to employ. "Oh, don't worry about striking fast, either. Strike hard." With so much armour and few points to penetrate it, they could stand there for days without making a scratch if they were intent on just tapping the surface a few times; he didn't know much about the weak-points of armour but the few places he did know were likely too low to the ground for a longsword to hit without dragging the tip along the floor like a giant sharp pencil.

[Poppy Blackburn]

Against her better judgement, Poppy had made the first move, but the move was not a measured blow or a calculated strike. As she had not spared with Alex in any capacity so far, she did not really have a idea or how skilled he really was. She knew he was far more skilled than her, that was definitely for certain, but to what extent, she did not know. Alexander had taken her opening attack with his blade head on, parrying it and brushing it off aside as he retaliated with an attack of his own, sending the pointed end of his shield into her exposed side, probably hoping to catch her off balance by the blow.

The edge of his shield rammed into her exposed side sending a blow through the plated breastplate and a mild shock and a slight gasp in her helmet that send her back two steps. Recovering quickly from the initial setback, she could hear the raised voice of their pycon teacher lecturing her from along the sidelines.

He’d indicated that that was a poor and foolhardy move, and she knew that it was one, and she took in all manners of advice, no matter useful or not. Just not the bad ones, those would be detrimental of her progress. He had placed emphasis on the need to not make a move unless she was certain she could land a successful hit. Perhaps, she would stick to doing that in future, time be damned. Just as Poppy was preparing for another strike, she thought about one of her first few lessons with her patron Ser Druva had always emphasis on the enemy legs, and the key they held in battle. Without the safety of their legs, the opponents or enemies would always be vulnerable.

Just as the thought came to mind, Archie, their little training instructor suggested that she aim for his legs, and that was a definite, just not right now. Right now, Poppy had other ideas. Being much bigger and taller than she was, Alexander’s shield was also smaller than hers, which limited the protection range it could protect. If she should strike there, he would have to focus on defending that area which should leave some of the other areas exposed, ripe for attacks. A plan quickly formulated in her mind.

Poppy would move forth, attempting to strike down on Alex’s legs, but that would be no more than a feint. The attacking he was expecting to come to his legs would not come, as her shield arm would send it crashing down on his helmet as she attempted to carry out a shield bash, using her defensive weapon as an offensive weapon.

All she had a mere blink of an eye to carry out this surprise attack to see if this would be a successful strike or not. That didn't meant that she didn't have any intention to strike properly at his legs, opportunities don’t come knocking unless you start looking for them was an old phrase her father used to say. It was only after the bash to his helmet was successful that the armoured squire would launch a real attack on sparring partner’s legs this time. Hopefully that would get him off balance enough to make it work.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Well at least the squirrel still had faith in him. Perhaps that was because Alex still had faith in the squirrel. Having said that it was clear though that the squirrel was going to be aiding Poppy more than he was Alex. Perhaps this was a vote of confidence? Or just another way for Archie to help Alex get beaten? Either way Alex was currently still in a good position. Primarily because Archie was yelling out the tactics that she’d now try and attempt. Having said that she followed through without much hesitation. Her sword came screeching out at a shocking speed the blade of her sword seared towards his legs.

Alex twisted his foot bracing it for impact against the hit. One thing that Poppy had forgotten potentially and Archie didn’t take into consideration. Despite the fact they were using shields, both were coated in a shield. And Alex was really used to getting hit by this point. So instead of moving his shield down to block he intended to take the strike on the armour and then push in. Dissolving any kind of distance advantage that may have been afforded. However when the blow hit Alex felt no power behind it.
Oh crap a fein- All he managed to think before her shield came crashing towards him. She’d used the extra size of her shield to add to her attack. Alex lifted his own smaller shield to meet the impact. His right leg now slid backwards bracing himself. The impact connected and as much as it stung, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. After all Poppy was smaller than he was. And Alex had learnt something else too.

“Get entangled with a bigger, stronger opponent and you’re dead.” He spoke calmly almost creepily. Pushing his shoulder into his strike he was attempting to throw her back and off balance from his much more grounded stance. If he’d managed to throw her off balance he’d follow up. His sword would ring out, the much larger mass and length of blade headed towards her own destabilized feet, using the flat of the blade like a battering ram he’d attempt to knock her feet out from under her and send her sprawling onto her back.

Archie was a great teacher and an excellent fighter but it seemed something slipped his mind here. He was teaching a smaller opponent how to fight a bigger one. But from his perspective. Alex was banking on that fact and hoping it was the key one that would lead to him also imparting a valuable lesson to Poppy. The ability to adapt. Something his patron Greyheart had drilled into him as hard as he could. And something that was consistently saving his behind from all manner of problems and issues.

If his attack failed or succeeded, Alex would take a step back himself changing his own stance. He’d drop his shield arm and lift his blade onto his shoulder. A much cockier stance and more open to attacks. He knew this and he knew it well. He was opening up a false opening. His chest would be wide open for attack and would be an easy target. However if she managed to take a strike there he’d flick his shield up towards the blade and parry the strike. Aiming to bring his own sword around and into the side where his shielded hand and struck before. A plan was only a plan till it was executed however. Could he pull this off or would Poppy and Archie see through it?

[Poppy Blackburn]

The attempt to fool Alexander worked, though Poppy wouldn’t call it a full-blown success for the results she had hoped for were slightly disappointing to say the least. The feint worked and her false attack had managed to catch her fellow squire by surprise, but the resulting shield bash that she carried out thereafter did not catch him exposed like she thought he would be, and she had to give him credit where it was due, considering how quickly he had recovered from the unsuspecting circumstance she had added into the fight. He had used his smaller shield to take the full brunt of the attack, clashing it against her larger shield.

The strike definitely affected him as she saw the man taking a step back to balance himself to prevent the loss of any balance. He was definitely a lot tougher than he had looked, and now she had a gauge of roughly how strong he was.

At least there was some merit to this maneuver. Alexander then taunted her, uttering a snide remark, “Get entangled with a bigger, stronger opponent and you’re dead.” Well, if he thought to make her anger with that, he failed. While she did see the point he was trying to bring across, the way he was trying to bring across the fact that he was bigger and stronger, perhaps showing off his masculinity in a further bid to intimidate her? It wasn’t working, and Poppy did her best to stifle a chortle that was threatening to escape her lips. She did, however, give him a cheeky retort to that remark of his.

“I’m so afraid, oh please save me, my knight in shining armour.”

Poppy couldn’t help but tease him back in return, as they began fighting with not just their swords but their minds as well. He then threw the full weight of his shoulder into his next attack, and instead of blocking and parrying, she did something new completely. Being focus and on the alert for a possible counterattack, the lass had moved as quick as she could the moment she had seen him move into action.

Evading his shoulder strike with a step to the side, Alexander would most probably head forwards, without the expected body of his opponent to clash with. That should ultimately make him lose his balance this time, allowing her to get a clean strike at his exposed rear. If he indeed lost his balance momentarily from her sudden shift of position in the midst of his attack, she would swing a heavy blow towards his legs in an attempt to get him off his feet.

Yep, this could very well be the leg attack Archie had asked for, but that all depended on Alex managing to lose his balance in the first place. If he had managed to regain his balance before the blade had chance to land upon his exposed back, they would be back to square one once again. Such was life, and things don’t always turn out the way you expected them to, as evidently seen in the previous periods of the sparr so far.

[Alexander Faircroft]

Description "Alex Common" Alex thoughts "Myrian" "Fratava" "Others"

Alex heard her words, almost like she was mocking him. He wasn’t trying to impose anything on her other than a teaching. His words were once of experience by this point after his tangle with Imass hand having nearly lost his head or faced serious injury several times. However the initially planned follow up had not worked as he’d intended. He put his full weight into the strike and caught nothing but air. This told him two things. One that his attacks were starting to get dangerous, because thy dodge, when you could block or parry to set up your own strike more effectively? And secondly it told him that despite the weight of her armour she was still fast. Quite possibly as surprisingly fast as he was. Maybe even a little quicker.

But Alex had some practice in catching his weight. Being thrown down flights of stairs and having been thrown a lot by the pycons he shifted his foot out and caught his now tumbling weight. His stronger and possibly quite unexpected footing would hopefully be enough to catch her off guard this time. However that wasn’t to be. As his foot made contact with the sand and he planted himself firmly she was already swinging her sword towards him. Her sword swinging towards his legs. Taking a note from what Archie had taught him in the unarmed combat he twisted his hips around first using the momentum and raw strength of his arms, he dug the tip of his sword into the sand. Relying on the strength of the steel and the weight of his sword to block her strike. A dull thud and a heavy ringing sensation rolled through his arms. Signalling a success.

He slipped his left foot out from beneath him making it look like he was about to fall and with a swift follow up from his lower body he snapped his legs out towards hers. He was going to try and sweep her legs out from beneath her. If she was so likely to shift her feet around and dodge his strikes then how about he pose something, which would at the very least force her to change tactics. He knew jumping in that much steel was something not advised, the sheer weight was liable to cause a nasty landing even for experienced users. Should she avoid his attack or should it hit, he’d haul his weight back up using the tip of his sword which he’d dug in the ground to lever himself back to full standing position.

He had to give her credit, he’d not given her quite as much credit as she deserved. She was holding her own very well. “Sorry Poppy, this armour ain’t shining.” He’d speak calmly and very clearly for her to hear. His intent now was on trying to get her to realize what he was saying. He wasn’t physically stronger, but he held a reach advantage and a stronger arsenal of experience. All of which he was deploying piece mail, half to instil her with the knowledge. The other half was to try and impress Archie. The squirrel despite his looks was for lack of a better term a damned good tactician.

[Poppy Blackburn]

This spar was starting to turn into something else as Poppy tried her best to hold her own against Alexander, despite her several attempts to best him turn into nothing more but futile actions. She was clearly not as skilled as he was, and certainly lacking any experience that she could use to augment and supplement her strikes and attacks. With a wealth of previously tried and tested strategies and experiences that he was most definitely besting her with, Poppy struggled to keep up with the better squire, the pace and intensity of increasing gradually as the fight drew on. Once again her plan to best him by throwing him off balance was foiled, as he caught his own weight that was tumbling forwards.

The physical exertion by now was causing her to perspire profusely when combined with the warm and stuffy conditions of the full faced helmet she wore. Peering the eye slit of her sallet helmet, Poppy watched as he twist his fully armoured body around as though he was not encased in a suit of plated metal armour.

That alone spoke dedication and commitment for the training he had undergone. She could only hope that she would be as skilled as him in the future. Alexander then planted the tip of his weapon in the sand, before bringing it back up to block her strike. She had no idea why he had dug the tip of his blade in the sand, but she was watching his every move, even the ones that were blocked, hoping to study and analyse them later, over in her head.

The clash of blades sounded once more for the umpteen time, but the pair was no closer to finishing the fight. Actually, given the situation, if this carries up, Poppy might very well lose being the grossly inexperienced one, when compared to the likes of Alex.

She then watched as he slipped his left foot out beneath him, attempting to trick her into thinking that he would slip and lose his balance. Perhaps if he had done that way earlier instead of after a series of display of skill that he was not the type to fall easily, she would have bought it, but by now, she knew that there was no way he was falling that easily, especially by himself. It was then that the battle extended out of the use of their blades, as a plated leg of his shot out towards hers, and Poppy did the first thing that came to mind. As his leg come shooting out towards her, she sent one of her straight on in a collision course, attempting to kick his leg away, her own blade planted in the sand for stability, just as he had done. She was learning on the go, watching and observing the more experienced fighter.

Being in the suit of armour was taxing to the body, and carrying out actions like dodging and jumping consumed a huge amount of energy, and thus they needed to be done sparingly, not whenever one wanted. With their legs snapping out towards each other, they should meet in hardly any time at all, and when that happens, they would both feel that shock that would come that would send them back.

Should Alexander use his blade to stabilise himself back upright again, she would follow suit. The snark then returned as he quipped “Sorry Poppy, this armour ain’t shining.” Poppy then retorted back instantly. “Looks like you’ll need to polish it harder then.” She may not be as skilled as him when it comes to fighting, but she wasn’t going to lose to him as well on the snark front. No way that was happening. For all the love of Yahal, she wasn't going to give up.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

Next time he came back around, it seemed as though they'd both taken his advice in aiming for the legs. Perhaps a little too much; now they'd both abandoned their swords and were almost completely devoted to kicking each-other in the shins. It was almost a little comical, watching the two armour-suited squires kicking each-other back and forth, likely about to get tangled up and fall together into a tussle on the ground if neither of them were careful. In his time jumping around he'd caught snippets of their conversation and he had to say that Alex was right in one thing, that was for certain. "Don't get tangled, Poppy." Alex was bigger and likely had more weight to throw around. If it came to a scramble on the ground he wasn't putting his Miza's on Poppy.

Besides, there was no point in spending all day kicking when they had swords. "It's not worth it Poppy, back off and put some range between the two of you." Almost as an afterthought he added soon afterwards, "and try not to get hit on your way out." It was pretty evident that Alex had some serious advantages against Poppy, both physically and mentally; as much advice as he could offer, he couldn't guide her through every move that she should make. At least she'd taken his word and gone for the legs, so he knew she was paying attention.. now all he could hope was that she'd find a way through his defenses. "Use spacing and footwork. Don't let him rush you and don't get too close."

It was likely flimsy advice at best but it was the best he could offer knowing that Alex was standing by and listening to everything he said. He reacted too fast to the last attack, he thought, watching their back-and-forth. This'd be so much easier if everyone had signals I could use. Something he'd have to remember for the future - he'd heard something about a signal-language used by the knights but he'd never actually been introduced to it.. or even learned how one was supposed to learn about it in the first place. But being able to give off commands without speaking them out-loud sounded like something worth investing in for precisely these moments. "Keep your centre of gravity low, Poppy, so that he can't push you over. It'll keep your balance."

That was about all the advice he could give for then. He could hear some yelling in the distance and bounced away to investigate.