Trying to find the middle.

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This shining population center is considered the jewel of The Sylira Region. Home of the vast majority of Mizahar's population, Syliras is nestled in a quiet, sprawling valley on the shores of the Suvan Sea. [Lore]

Trying to find the middle.

Postby Reed on June 1st, 2020, 4:32 am

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Date: 41st of Spring, 520 AV

Spring passed quickly for Reed as he grew used to the schedule set for him by the knights. Between physical training taking up much of his day, and the odd task he was assigned, he managed to keep very busy. Then of course, his nights were consumed talking with the statue he’d come across the previous season. She tended to serve as a mediator between him and his brother whom he still wasn’t quite comfortable thinking of in that way. For much of his life, that twin had been a confusing source of antagonism for him. He still didn’t feel like he could trust Merdem, even now, though he was working on giving the man his space. Not because he wanted to, but because it became necessary. He didn’t need the constant disruption of fighting with his brother for control that had interrupted his training.

As it was, the damage had already been done, though Kaer seemed to think it was salvageable. Reed wasn’t so sure. A couple of the squires he trained with still seemed to have a chip on their shoulder about his outbursts and he really couldn’t blame him. It was his fault for not recognizing the issue sooner. Had it not been for the statue and Kaer, he might have never recognized he’d been fighting with his twin all of this time. After all they grew up together, how was he supposed to know this wasn’t his own special brand of crazy that he kept to himself.

At least he had that to go on. He wasn’t crazy. Kaer confirmed it when he explained that he would have normally been taught by his father well before now. Apparently all akalaks secretly dealt with this condition, and having wrestled with it all his life, he knew why it was a secret. The akalak knight gave him hope however. He seemed to get along well enough with his brother. They had also managed to talk some sense into Merdem for which he was very thankful. Sometimes it felt like a brick wall arguing with him.

The Ser in charge whistled, and Reed rose from the bench to follow his sparring partner for today. His partner was a man with black hair and hazel eyes, who almost stood to the same height as him. His weapon of choice was a long spear that Reed was cautious to approach with his poleaxe. He didn’t have much in the way of experience facing one. So, after circling cautiously for a tick, he moved in, maneuvering his poleaxe around for a diagonal hit. Immediately he regretted not using the metal que on the end of his poleaxe when the man sidestepped his strike. Before he could bring the poleaxe back up to block, his opponent had scored two hits, one against the back of his calf, the other on his side.
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Trying to find the middle.

Postby Reed on June 1st, 2020, 4:33 am

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With a grimace, Reed reminded himself to keep control of his weapon as he squared up again. This time, holding the que out in front of him he stepped forward. “You’ll do better if you stop watching my hands, and look at what the rest of me is doing instead.” Reed stopped and looked at the man, whom took that as a sign to continue. “It is easy to get tricked into making a move if you aren’t paying attention to your opponents body, and where they are looking. If all you watch is their hands, you’ll never see what move they plan on making next.” Then he lunged, jabbing out with the spear. It struck the plate over his shoulder before he got a chance to block, and Reed stumbled backwards onto one knee.

“Now you aren’t going to try and brawl with me are ya? Cause I can give as good as I can get.” The man said with a little bit of a sneer. Reed gritted he teeth as he recognized what he was referring too and took an extra tick getting up to his feet. “Of course not. Also, do you tend to talk a lot while you are fighting?”

“Only against hopeless causes.” The man retorted, dropping back into ready position. Reed did the same, and didn’t pay the comment much mind. Merdem on the other hand stirred at the jab. Mentally pleading with his brother to just focus on the training, Reed approached the man cautiously. He wasn’t about to mouth off at these obvious provocations. Instead, he tried focusing on the things the man had mentioned. While it seemed the man didn’t have a high opinion of him, his advice was sound enough. Reed watched how the man was moving his feet and the directions he looked while he plotted his next swing. Not wanting to fully commit, he decided to go with a test jab of the que towards the man’s right. The man deflected to blow with the body of his spear and countered with a strike from the butt. Reed deflected it with the pole of his weapon and took a step around trying to work in another jab on his side. This one was deflected too, but the man backed away instead of performing another counter strike. Reed was watching his feet carefully pace back and too the right when the man launched forwards right as Reed was turning to face him. The result was the spear neatly splitting the air next to his face as the man diverted at the last moment. Taking off his helmet and dropping the spear, the man immediately raised a hand.
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Trying to find the middle.

Postby Reed on June 1st, 2020, 4:34 am

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“Petch that was close, what were you doing? You almost ran into my strike!” He asked as Reed was just taking off his helmet to get some air as well. The strike had been close, and his heart was hammering in his chest. Trying his best to look non-pulsed, and failing, he responded. “Trying to watch your feet, like you said.” The man sighed exasperated at that, and bent at the knees to stretch. “Well, you need to watch everything else as well. If you find yourself focusing too much on one thing your going to find yourself in a nasty accident like that almost was.” Nodded, Reed replied simply. “Point taken.” Then putting on his helmet, he got into position while the other man grabbed his gear. “Maybe your not so hopeless as I first thought, you didn’t flinch much when that spear came for your face, though you need to get a lot better at blocking.” The man chided as he picked up his spear and started slowly approaching.

This time it was the man who struck first, and he did it in a slow and methodical way. He wasn’t moving terribly slow, but Reed watched as he pulled back his arm for the strike and as he exaggerated positioning the blow with the butt of his spear. When it came, Reed was able to easily body block it and waited for him to retract so they could start again. It went on like that for a few more chimes till his breathing was slow and steady. Then, with a nod, the man picked up the pace, and started going for multiple strikes. He always kept the same pattern though so after taking the first few hits on his armor, Reed was able to work out a rhythm to block the approach. First he would start off with two low jabs, then one high, another low, and then finally coming in at the middle from the side. The low ones were the easiest ones for him to block as he had the weight of his que to give him some speed swinging in that direction. However when he went high is when he scored the most strikes against Reed’s upper plate. This was because once he was low, Reed had a hard time bringing up the heavy pollaxe quick enough to deflect the strikes. Sometimes he could get the head up in time, but it wasn’t in position for most of them. Even when it was, he did it with inappropriate parts like the head of the axe that the spear slipped under to continue with the strike.

The man was generous however and didn’t change the pattern for a long time, giving Reed ample opportunity to practice switching positions. While he did, he was also watching how the man moved for each strike. How his feet tended to point in the direction he was looking. How his swing swiftly followed in response. What the angle of his shoulders did for his reach and ability to counter. Of course, this was him going easy so it probably wasn’t the most useful interpretation, but Reed at least felt like he was making headway. Merdem must have too because his feelings seemed to have been mollified somewhat.
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Trying to find the middle.

Postby Reed on June 1st, 2020, 4:35 am

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As before, the man nodded before he changed things up. He started by jabbing high with his spear which Reed dodged by leaning out of the way while stepping back. The next strike was a horizontal sweep down by his legs which Reed avoided by bringing down the butt of his poleaxe to check the spear off course from the strike. Next came another high jab, then one at his midsection before going high again. Reed managed to block the first too, but the last one rang off his shoulder causing him to stumble back a step. Reed got right back into position though, hoping he got the pattern down. However, instead of a patter, the man went with a random series of jabs, low, high, low, low, middle, high, high, low, middle. Reed wouldn’t have even have deflected half of them if they hadn’t came a little slower than the others with more of those advanced ques the squire had shown earlier. Still, more than a few managed to land a hit which Reed simply bore as he continued to try and do better blocking the ones coming now.

Gradually, he stopped trying to block all of them with his weapon as he tried just stepping out of the way of them instead. He’d grown at least marginally used to his armor by now so it was a lot faster for him to simply step out of the range of some of them instead of trying to bring his heavier poleaxe around to block all of the strikes by the light spear. The man stayed silent, but picked up the pace as he started to avoid more strikes. Reed also started carrying his poleaxe a little higher up on his chest as he got used to manipulating it around to block some of the strikes the squire was going for. It was easier to go low after all so keeping it high meant less effort to block the upper body shots. Of course he wasn’t quite familiar enough with the reach of his weapon yet so he missed blocking some of the lower strikes as a result, but he was getting better about not overcompensating with every strike.

Eventually, things wound down between them, and they both took a breather on a bench while they stripped off some armor. “Not bad, I think you actually made a little progress today.” The man chided, and Reed held out a fore arm towards him. “Thanks, even if you are an ass.” The man laughed at that, and bumped his forearm against his before going back to unfastening his plate. “Names Mattle, and you are Reed I assume?” “How you figure?” Reed asked with a grin. “Well, there aren’t many akalak squires” Mattle laughed, and gathered the pieces of his upper plate in a pile beside him. Doing the same with his own, Reed stood up and started with his stretches. “I’ll keep in mind what you said today, I haven’t had much experience training with these weapons but I hope I’m getting the hang of it.” “Just need to get your body used to moving with it. The rest will come with more experience too.” Stretching out his arms far behind him, he nodded at that. “I expected as much. Its the same thing when fighting with whatever you can get your hands on. Some items do better because you are familiar with them.”
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Trying to find the middle.

Postby Reed on June 1st, 2020, 4:36 am

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“So you really were a brawler? Thought that was just a joke.” Mattle said from his side as he started stretching as well. Reed just nodded and continued through his stretches till he was done several ticks later. “Its not something I’m very proud of, but I don’t regret it either. I did what I had to, simple.” Mattle seemed to chew on that for a moment, but didn’t add anything, instead focusing on completing his own stretches. Finally, after removing the rest of his armor, Reed broke the silence once more. “I wouldn’t mind sparring with you again in the future. Petch, I know I learned a lot more today than I have against some of the other squires.” “Sure, I don’t mind babysitting you again if you’ll show me some of those brawling moves of yours sometime.” Reed cracked a smile at that, and shrugged. “If you want to get down in the dirt, be my guest.” With that, Mattle departed and Reed gathered up his things to drop by his apartment. His day was far from finished but he wouldn’t have to wear the plate for the rest of his chores today at least. It was far to hot for that anyways in the castle. Especially after an already exasperating false winter.

On his way back, he decided to help a older man bring back some plate to his shop. It was due for some repair and looked a bit heavy for just him to be lugging back by himself. It gave him ample time to consider how his training went today and how he might be able to improve upon what he’d learned. For starters, he needed to make sure that he stopped watching any one thing too much because like Mattle said, it was tripping him up. An in a real encounter, he didn’t want to be a liability like that. He already felt like that enough as it was with his lack of knowledge about general knight skills and knowledge. Petch, he couldn’t even properly navigate the city, which was why he and Merdem didn’t mind helping like this from time to time. That was the official excuse anyways because Reed did feel better about helping the man just because it felt right. Merdem was more inclined to focus on the former reason which was alright by Reed. Whatever kept them from at each others throats was good with him.

After helping the man, he made his way back to his apartments to stow his gear. He still had a busy day ahead of him so he decided stopping by the bathhouses was not in the cards and instead just relaxed a few chimes to let himself dry out a bit. Then, with a sigh, he decided to continue on with the more mundane chores of his day. At least he wasn’t too tired to complain.
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